Do you ever get bored with your job? I love what I do but there are days when I feel bored and wish I could do something else. Our friend Fran deals with boredom on her job. In case you’re not familiar with this series, this is a fictional story of a woman in the workplace who is learning to practice the presence of Jesus right on her job.
It’s Tuesday afternoon, and Fran is sitting at her desk looking at the clock. "Three o’clock; wow, has this been a long day. I am ready to go home; in fact, I’m ready for the weekend, and it’s only Tuesday. How am I going to make it to Friday?" she says out loud to herself.
She realizes that she hasn’t had much pep and energy in the past few days, and she feels a bit guilty, but she can rationalize it to herself. "I’m just tired of the same old routine, you know,” she tells herself. “I guess I’m ready for a new job. I think I’ve got this one down pat and there’s no challenge left in it for me."
As soon as she says the words, she can almost hear Jesus saying, "So, you feel you’ve done all you can do with this job? No new ground to break, no room for
improvement?" Coming to understand that Jesus is aware of her every word and thought still catches her by surprise at times, but as she is learning to practice the presence of Jesus, she is more and more aware of his reaction to her words and thoughts.
Responding, she says, "Well, I guess there’s always room for improvement, but I’ve been here a few years now and yeah, I think I’m ready for bigger things."
She begins to think about her attitude in the last few days and weeks—this idea of being bored and wanting bigger things—and realizes that her work habits have deteriorated, no doubt because of her attitude. But that’s a little hard for her to own up to quite yet. She thinks to herself, "I don’t think I’ve been that bad. I’m still getting my work done."
Getting her work done—yeah, but is that the right attitude. She thinks of a very familiar verse in Ecclesiastes 9:10 which says that whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
Fran begins to compare herself with her coworkers, and in defensive mode, she says, "Lord, I do more work on a bad day than most of my coworkers do on a good day. Even if I have slowed down a little bit lately, I’m still ahead of most everybody else around here."
Again, she can almost hear Jesus saying, "So, by comparing yourself with others, you can justify your lack of doing your best, is that what you’re telling me, Fran?"
Fran knows that won’t hold any water, because long ago Jesus taught her that she should never compare herself with others. Fran is not sure how to answer him, so she shifts in her seat and starts to shuffle papers.
"Well, I’m just telling it like it is, Lord… I better make these phone calls," she replies as she changes the subject.
Boredom. It can certainly lead to some poor work habits and keep us from being our best, can’t it?
