“Meaningless! Meaningless!
...Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

"I’m bored! There’s nothing to dooo.” Parents sometimes respond by saying, “Well, why don’t you play with ...” and then reel off a list of all the toys and games the kid has in his room. Of course, that seldom works, because at that moment, he’s looking for new stimulation.

Adults also experience boredom and like children they too, have their toys and games. We can go to the movies, the theater, the mall, the gym, the stadium or the entertainment complex set up in our own family room. But like children, some days, none of that is enough.

Boredom can creep into every area of life. Just recently I was asked, “How can I make my Christian faith more exciting?” Daily walking with Christ, attending church every Sunday, teaching Sunday school, belonging to the young adult group was not exciting enough. What he was basically saying is, “I’m bored!”

This reminds me of a story about a minister who announced, “There will be a meeting of the board immediately following this service.” After the benediction the group gathered for the called meeting. All were surprised when a visitor who had never attended their church before joined them.
“My friend,” asked the pastor, “did you understand that this is a meeting of the board?”
“Yes,” said the visitor, “and after that service, I’m about as bored as you can get!”

It is safe to say that all of us at sometime or another feel as though meaning and purpose has been drained out of her life. Like Solomon we feel like crying out,

“Meaningless! Meaningless!
...Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

At the time of Solomon writing Ecclesiastes he is disturbed by the inability to find meaning in his daily life. He feels that nothing he has done or achieved makes any real difference. He fears that he’ll go to his grave without discovering how to hold onto contentment. We would hardly describe Ecclesiastes as a happy, upbeat book, but it has the ring of reality about it.

If life were simple and tidy, the author of Ecclesiastes would have gone on in his book to tell us how he discovered the key to overcoming boredom, and this sermon on his book would be titled something like “Three Easy Steps to an Exciting Life.” At the very least, he would tell us that by trusting God, all boredom would dissolve. Solomon doesn’t do that. Solomon doesn’t “conquer” boredom. So what are you and I to do with our boredom? What can we learn from Solomon’s writings? What can we learn from his boredom that will enrich our life?

First we can learn what not to do. Solomon tried several remedies, including self-indulgence, lavish spending and sensual pleasures. While he did find some immediate gratification, he concluded that such is all the reward there is. The fact that Solomon turned to these vices reveals the fact that as Solomon grew older he grew further and further from God.

As we grow older we must grow closer and closer to God.

A real-life story that perhaps illustrates this point. A woman drove an armored vehicle that picked up and delivered money. Driving and stopping at stores and banks and waiting for the pickup or drop-off is what she did ten hours a day, always covering the same route day after day. Talk about boredom!

She struggled with her desire to quit and find another job but held on because of the medical insurance benefits and her fear of not finding a job that paid what she was currently making. She grew more and more bored, and before long, bitterness at her life circumstances began to set in.

She could have said exactly what Solomon said,

“Meaningless! Meaningless!
...Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

A life-changing turning point for her was the day she decided to give God her day and ask that it be used to accomplish God’s purposes. Instead of mindless existence, she began to use her time while she was waiting to pray — at first for her family and friends, then for concerns raised at church, and eventually she began to pray for the people she met and/or saw from the armored truck. Giving her boredom to God allowed God to transform it into meaning and purpose.”

Here is the challenge we need to take away from Ecclesiastes. Our challenge is to surrender our boredom to God, to use our meaningless moments of life to glorify and serve God and to trust to transform our meaninglessness into purposefulness.

Of course, whatever our circumstances, God never promised us freedom from boredom. God promised to be with us. As we trust God and go faithfully about our daily tasks and help others, God goes with us, adding the pleasure of his presence to our lives.

Solomon shows that hard work bears no lasting fruit for those who work solely to earn money and gain possessions. The fruit of hard work done to glorify only ourselves will be passed on to those who may later lose or spoil it. As Solomon learned neither his accomplishments nor his wisdom could make him truly happy.

True wisdom is found in God, and true happiness comes from pleasing Him. Hard work done with proper motives, caring for your family, serving God with your boredom is not meaningless.