The Boredom Epidemic

Photo credit: Sheknows.com

"What is there to live for?" "I don't have anything." "My life is empty." These are words too often said today. It seems as though each year, more and more people suffer from depression to the point that most people I encounter at work are on some form of psychiatric medication. What happened? Why have we gone into an age of depression and psychiatric problems? I believe there are more than one factor to all of this, but with the upcoming generation, I am starting to see a pattern.

We live in a world of "me". Why didn't people hardly suffer with depression, even a hundred years ago? In our schools, kids are coddled and told they can do anything and be anything. They are taught that they are something special. Self-esteem is the center of persons well-being and if your self-esteem isn't high, something must be wrong. Someone is given a trophy for participation, but when he gets fired from work for not doing their job, it must be the boss's or company's fault. We are raising a generation of entitled snowflakes who are taught that they can have anything and that the world owes them something, when in fact, the opposite is the truth. 

Another factor I see in the pandemic of depression is over-stimulation. With TV, video games, sports, instant gratification, and pressure for teenagers (and even preteens) to experience it all while in school, they are bored by time graduation comes. With our youth group, it seems that the kids are pressured to be involved in everything at school, even on Sundays. And "college is the best years of your life, live it up." By time these people reach 20, they have lived the life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. All of the pleasures of this life, they try to cram in their short time as a teenager as if there is no life after high school. Then when they reach adulthood, boredom sets in. What else is there to look forward to? Why look forward to sex when married when you can have it now and experience sexual exposure by simply watching commercials on TV. 

With a generation of bored, coddled snowflakes, it's no wonder things like depression, anxiety, and ADHD are rampant. As Christians, we have everything to look forward to. We know we have a home in Heaven and rewards for the work we do here. We should never be bored with the amount of work God has for us. We should never grow weary with a satisfying relationship with God. We are told throughout the Bible how much we are loved by God, even to death on the cross. But we should not let that lead us to believing God will give us everything or an easy, stress-free life. God promises us joy and peace when we are content in him and follow in his will, but he does not promise that we will always feel good about ourselves or that he will always be vocal in our lives. That is when we need to wait on the Lord, pray, and trust in him. God will give us peace and satisfaction when we look to him. God has blessed each of us, we just need to look to him and what he has given us. 

Setting the Standard

Comparatively, I have not worked all that many different jobs. I currently work as a paramedic on a county ambulance service as well as an investigator for the medical examiner. Prior to that, I was a greenskeeper for a golf course. Before that, I was in sales and marketing and before that I was a full time stay at home son. But what I have found that each have in common are some form of standard. Whether it is a dress code, a code of conduct, a protocol for treatments for ailments, and so on. As I think more on it, we all have some form of standard that we live up to. Unfortunately though, too many Christians do not follow spiritual standards.

Standards in our spiritual lives have multiple purposes. They set us apart from the non-Christians. If we don't really follow moral standards, how are we any different in our conduct than someone who is not a Christian? In addition, standards bring us to be more like Christ. Romans 12:2 says "..be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." There's a quote that I like that goes something like "you may be the only Bible someone will ever read". We should be that light and the testimony reflecting Christ.

A third purpose of living up and establishing biblical standards is for protection. In addition to the jobs I work, I am also a volunteer firefighter. In the fire service, we have a governing organization called the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). This agency essentially writes out all of the regulations for fire departments. They cover anything from tactics for scene size up and fire attack, to how we wear and upkeep our gear. We have a strict guideline to follow as to how we wear our gear, including grooming standards. Do they develop these guidelines just to try to control us? Of course not! The whole purpose of these regulations is to protect us and bystanders on a scene.

In addition to personal standards the NFPA sets, there are standards for conducting ourselves on scene. On fire scenes, we set a boundary around the scene. It may not always be a physical barrier, but there is a line we don't allow bystanders to cross and the key is to place the barrier far enough away from the scene to protect the bystanders. We don't set the barriers right in the dangerous area, we set it far enough back so that, if someone does happen to cross it, they have that cushion to avoid injury or death. But somehow, we seem to think we don't need these barriers in our spiritual life. We inch our way closer and closer to sin, seeing how close we can get without falling in. But we should be setting standards for ourselves that set a barrier so that, if we cross that barrier, we don't fall into sin.

I want to revisit the standards for our fire department. Even though the NFPA set standards for us, they do not police us to make sure we follow them. Each department and individual has a choice of whether we follow them. One standard that we have is that if we wear an SCBA, we are not to have facial hair aside from a mustache. But there are many departments in my area that allow for full beards. My point is, these standards are designed to protect us, but we ultimately have the choice of whether we will follow them. We have a choice of whether we follow biblical standards and set personal standards for ourselves. But if we don't, we have only ourselves to blame when we fall into the fire.

Determining Your Faith

A few years ago, we had a Creationist come and speak to our youth group. He was quite insightful and I personally enjoyed listening to him. One of the things I remember that he had said was that the  majority of the young people who leave the church is because of a poor foundation in their faith. This had convicted me when it comes to our youth group and it became my personal mission to give them a good foundation to stand on. Since then, we have taken our youth a few times to the Creation Museum in Kentucky and the recent Ark Encounter as a means to hopefully bring them to a good understanding of Genesis as a foundation, in addition to taking them deep into the old testament.

I believe the young people in our youth group are beginning to have a stronger foundation. But I have come to another conclusion of why youth leave the church and that is because they do not adopt the Christian faith as their own. It is all too common for young people to grow up in a Christian home, read their Bible, go to church, and pray because that is what their family does. But when they leave home, is that belief system still standing or have they abandoned it, no longer under their parent's roof?

Since I was about twelve, I have been playing guitar. Mind you, I have not really learned to actually play until I was about 17 or 18. Throughout my learning and playing experience, I have had varying music genre tastes and in each genre, instrument preference changes. As I became a more experienced guitarist, it had become my dream to own a real Gibson Les Paul, and even more, with EMG active pickups. Well, within the last year, I had finally bought one and switched to the pickups I had so badly wanted and couldn't be happier with it.

I have shown a few people this guitar, some guitarist and some not. The guitarists naturally are interested in it while the non-guitarists think it's neat but don't really see the value in it. For both, they may see the price tag and know that it is monetarily valuable. They may recognise that it is an effective, pristine sounding instrument and know that it has value. But the difference between the value to them and the value to me is that this is my guitar that I own (not to mention being my dream guitar). I take exceptional care of my guitars, but my Gibson is the only one that I keep in the case, not placing it on a guitar stand. I handle it gently and when done playing, I polish the body, polish the chrome, clean and oil the strings, and clean the neck and fretboard to keep it in great condition.

This is a great guitar and it is one thing to own it and another thing to be able to play it. And what I have noticed is that this guitar is much like our faith. A Christian can see the value in their salvation and realise that they have a relationship and connection to God. But all too many people don't recognise the personal value it has to them. They may see the price tag of Jesus' death, they may see the amazing things God does, but they do not own it and use it to it's potential. My Gibson is a very effective guitar in itself, but is laid to waste if left in the case and not played. Someone who has accepted Christ, but placed their beliefs and faith in a case to not be used, it is wasted. If someone does not accept their faith as their own, but rather the religion of their parents, they may abandon their faith altogether.

We must make the decision to accept Christ and adopt the faith as our own. Not because that's what our parents do, not because it's what our pastor preaches, but because we realise the value of our relationship with our savior and the amazing things God can do through us. But we must decide to take our faith our of the case and make it our own. In the words of Joshua, "Chose you this day whom you will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He decided that he will serve God, making his beliefs his own. Joshua is the example we should follow and determine our faith.

The Spiritual Dojo

In today's culture, "growing" seems to be a hot topic. Whether it's in business, through self help books, or physically in a gym, the idea of growing seems to be on the rise. Unfortunately, too many Christians and churches don't have the same passion for growth. We want to be "better" Christians but don't know where to start or don't want to do what it takes. When I talk about growing, I don't mean larger church attendance or becoming busier for God. I am talking about personal growth.

I have many hobbies but one of my favorites is combat sports. I train in jiu jitsu, judo, MMA, and kickboxing. A lesson that is learned early on is that there are three elements to each to be successful: defense, offense, and endurance. It is essential to train hard and regularly to prepare for a fight. If the work isn't put in and steps aren't taken to improve, the fight will be lost or that belt won't be earned.

In martial arts, defense is so important. In fact, my jiu jitsu coach reminds us that it is a white belt's job to survive. There is an emphasis in defending against attacks. In boxing, we are taught first to keep our guard and defend against blows. Defense is extremely important, but in a fight or tournament, defense alone won't win the match; there must also be a good offense and attack. And in addition, neither will be possible if you are gassed in the first minute or two. There must be endurance to push through the match.

Our spiritual growth is much the same. We are to grow to be more like Christ, but in our growth, we need to learn to fight the devil. If we cannot defend against Satan's temptations, we will never become more like Christ. If we don't learn to attack Satan, he will continue to attack us forcefully. And if we don't have the endurance, Satan will continue to attack until we wear down and break. If you have ever been in a fight, you know that if you just stand there in defense, the attacker will continue to hit harder until he breaks you, but if you fight back on the offense, he realises that you know how to fight and that is exactly how we should grow. Second Peter, chapter one gives step by step, what it takes to grow and the first thing it mentions is that all the steps must be done in diligence. If we aren't persistent in our spiritual training and don't spend every day in the spiritual dojo, we won't grow to the capacity we need to fight Satan.

This all sounds good, but we still can't grow without the decision to grow. 1 Corinthians 13:11 says "when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." It takes a conscious decision to put away being a spiritual child and growing into a spiritual man. We ought to strive to grow more and more into mature Christians, ready to fight the evils the come to us.