COLLEGE PARK, MD –
It is easy for us to fall into a malaise of boredom – boredom that can corner you when you least expect it and convince you there is no way out.
Here I do not mean boredom as having a lack of motions to go through. By that account, we may be the least bored people on planet earth. There is always something to busy us and distract us from the real work we’re here to do.
What I mean by boredom is more along the lines of spiritual boredom. In our “busy” lives, many of us are not experiencing meaning or satisfaction. We’re left with plenty of things to do, but a dearth of rewarding things to do.
Even the strongest among the faithful must continually push against their edge and maintain a healthy balance of challenging themselves to keep improving, keep experiencing as well as understand their limits.
Trying to continually remain in balance is where the activation of the spirit lies and where boredom can be shed.
Spiritual Adventure
Key to achieving balance in this regard is to live with an adventurous attitude.
Adventures don’t merely take place in physical space. They can be, and, in fact, are usually best, experienced from within. Inner transformation is an adventure Edmund Hillary wouldn’t have ever been able to surmount. It is inexhaustible.
All adventures, inner and outer, begin with renunciation – rejecting something or giving something up.
It could be that we renounce unnecessary material possessions. It could be that we renounce a claim we typically make. Renouncing claims is a great way to embark on a spiritual adventure.
That’s really all it takes to liven things up in life – taking the first step of renunciation. The rest requires no examination; it happens on its own.
So next time we’re feeling bored, let’s try to liven things up by giving something up.
Tarif