Boring!/ Thoughts we face

By Michael Wells
Posted Friday, April 9, 2004

II Cor. 4:5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
I have had on this trip a revelation that is life changing. I was talking to a man who had suffered abuse as a child. The end result is that he has spent nearly forty years in counseling. He would tell the counselors about a beating, show the scar, they would talk to an invisible father in a chair, and so on. I listened, wondering what Jesus would say. I am just as surprised as those I am discipling when the Lord gives me something, but then it came. I leaned forward, put my hands on his knees, and said, “Listen very carefully, for Jesus has told me what to say. It is only one word, but if you receive it, it will change the course of your life. If you do not listen, well, amen.” The man leaned toward me and listened intently. Then the word came, “Boooooring!” He just stared, but again I said, “Boring! Your story is boring; I am bored to death with it; I can’t stand to hear any more of it. Why have you not gotten a life? It is bad that you were beaten as a child, it is bad that it ruined the first twelve years of your life. However, it has become a tragedy because you have allowed it to steal another forty years. How long can you go on talking about the first twelve years of your life? It is boring; you are boring!” I explained that I was sick of myself, too; I was bored with Mike. I am exhausted from thinking about myself, who did what, said what, reacted, rebuked, hated, or liked me. It is all boring. Jesus is not boring. I had challenged myself to go one hour without thinking about myself. It took months, but I finally did it. Then I did it for one day and finally one week, the best week of my life; I missed nothing and had a great time. I challenged him that I would be bored and depressed, too, if all I did was think about him. Again, the advice was to get a life, get Christ’s life. As I was talking, his wife interrupted and said to him, “Go look in a mirror; you will be surprised with what you see.” He did and found that he was smiling. He acted shocked and said, “Why would I be smiling?” The answer was simple, “For the first time in over forty years your eyes are on Jesus.” There is nothing His nearness will not cure. To be happy you must give yourself to something greater than yourself. The thing far greater than man is God.