‘I can’t get bored’. A young fellow at the rehabilitation centre I’m involved with said it. He repeated it several times and made it clear it was a big concern. A few days later someone else expressed disappointment at missing out on good times because he was stuck in rehab. In response to my points about delayed gratification and eternal goals, he too said a line that got my attention: ‘But I need to have fun’.
‘I can’t get bored’ and ‘I need to have fun’ summarise our culture’s attitude to life. We have a sincere belief it is our inherent right to have continuous pleasure. We are owed a good time. We must constantly be entertained and feel good. Life must deliver a permanent adrenaline rush and boredom is our worst enemy. Ads in the local paper’s personal column illustrate this: ‘Bored housewives seek daytime liaisons with discreet gentlemen’, and a few lines down, ‘Susan, 28, divorced, looking for a guy for fun times’. Susan was probably a ‘bored housewife’ who met with ‘discreet gentlemen’, which resulted in a divorce, broken promises, court battles and suffering children. But that’s OK. The important thing is she isn’t bored anymore and she is about to have a fun time. The effects of ‘I can’t get bored’ and ‘I need to have fun’ are immense, impacting every part of society from the person in rehab to the housewife in suburbia. Mind you, no amount of money, activities, programs, love, attention, not even God Himself, will satisfy people with that attitude to life.
The seductiveness of pleasure and excitement is quite possibly the most destructive force that will assault your spiritual life, and thanks to certain strains of the prosperity doctrine, it is now well established in the church. ‘Make the Kingdom of God work for you!’ the prosperity preacher said. It’s not about us serving God; it’s about Him serving us, pleasuring us, giving us a buzz and making our lives exciting. We have misinterpreted God’s desire to bless us as our ‘right’ to pleasure and continuous excitement. This twisted doctrine has been used to justify all kinds of sin from unfaithfulness and adultery to excess spending and selfish living. I feel deeply for today’s youth leaders who are under constant pressure to deliver more and more exciting, ‘awesome’ programs to maintain their members’ attention. The topic of ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Ps 46:10) is out-of-date in the modern church.
The Bible book of Proverbs is quoted everywhere. Its author, Solomon, is often referred to as the wisest man of all time. But what isn’t referred to so much is the time Solomon traded his wisdom for pleasure. For years he pursued pleasure with a passion. He denied himself nothing and followed his every desire, which resulted in accumulating over 700 wives! These foreign women were his pleasure but they brought with them their gods, which turned his heart away from the Lord to the ‘detestable idols’ he set up all over the kingdom, some requiring child sacrifices. The pleasures of his heart had turned him into a fool who did ‘evil in the sight of the Lord’. God’s response to Solomon’s pursuit of pleasure and idols is one not often quoted: ‘So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you”‘ (1 Kings 11:11 NAS).
Solomon did regain some wisdom, as the book of Ecclesiastes indicates. So heed the advice of someone who has been there and paid the price. ‘I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.” And behold it too was futility.’ ‘I enlarged my works; I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; I made gardens and parks for myself…’ ‘I collected for myself silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and provinces…’ ‘And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure…’ ‘And it was all vanity and striving after the wind and there was no profit under the sun.’ (Ecclesiastes chapter 2:1,4,8,10,11 NAS)
For those who pursue pleasure, money and ‘good times’, and pay no attention to the laws and principles of God, just like Solomon, the Kingdom will be torn from them. The pursuit of pleasure profits us nothing in eternity and distracts us from what is important on earth, namely, our relationship with Jesus. Observe the words of 2 Timothy 2:22 and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.