How to Think About God When You Are Bored

Dallas Willard says that the first freedom that humans possess is where “they will place their mind.” In other words, no matter our situation or circumstance our minds can still dwell on good, positive things. I am not concerned with the power of

positive thinking but the power of God thinking. Willard goes on to say that where we choose to place our mind is the first step to spiritual transformation.

Have you ever been in a meeting, class, or even a church service that barely held your attention? This should be a situation where it should be easy to think about God but in my experience it is not. Our mind primarily likes to think about “when will this be over?”, “how much more can this person talk?” and other petty complaints. I like to turn these times into a game to see how often I can think about God.

I take a pen and clear off a space on my paper to make “tick” marks. Every time I have a thought about God, I make a mark on my paper. Whenever I do this it always turns what I thought was a boring meeting or gathering into a time bursting with life, discovery, and opportunity. I begin to think about the subject of the meeting in light of God’s purposes and will and nothing seems boring anymore. This is similar to Frank Laubach‘s Game With Minutes.

Give it a shot today. Anytime you find yourself in what would normally be considered an unexciting or boring setting, start marking how often you can think about God. You might even keep your results so that you can compare your performance to the last time you tried this experiment.