Have you ever noticed that after a while sin seems to lose its fun? When it does most of us either find new sins or find ways to enhance the sins we already have. After a while sin, in addition to being an insult to God and His character becomes so repetitive and unoriginal. It is interesting to watch this process happen in a group of people. People do the same sins over and over again believing they are the first ones to think of them. They think that what they are doing is so shocking or edgy. In reality, it is the same old thing in a new wrapper.

C.S. Lewis said, “"How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints".

What he is saying is that the pursuit of sin ends up being bored people doing the same old boring things and ending up more bored than they were before. Of course, we cannot admit our boredom. We have to act as though our sin is so fun. We really know that it has not done for us what we thought it would or that our conscience will not let us enjoy it as freely as we thought.

The problem with sin, other than the fact that it separates us from God is that it is never anything new. It is simply taking something that God intends for our pleasure and His glory and using it in the wrong way or in the wrong amount. The easiest example is sex. God designed it to be intimate and crazy exciting within the context of marriage. Sex is not sin. Using sex in a way that God did not intend is sin. Gluttony is another example. Food is not bad (Can I get an amen?). Overeating or using it to give ourselves comfort is.

See what I mean? The Enemy cannot create anything new. He simply makes us think that if we use God’s things in our own way we will actually enjoy them more. After a while it is just pathetic. We take these good things and pervert them. After a while it becomes boring. We add more of it or change it slightly. Even that becomes boring. The next thing we know we are bored but cannot admit it thinking that if we just did more of it or with a new twist we will finally strike gold.

The problem is that human beings have an infinite capacity for boredom and an infinite capacity to think that we can find the answer in more sin. What is the answer to all of this? Solomon asked the same question in Ecclesiastes. He had more sex than anyone else. He had more money than anyone else. He built more buildings than anyone else. He had more entertainment than anyone else. After he tried more and more and more he came to a conclusion of what really brings joy. In chapter 12 he said it… “love God and obey Him”. The only thing that never became boring to him was God himself. He discovered what one theologian called “the perpetual novelty” of God. In other words, God never changes but he is always new. Jesus is simple enough to fall in love with and complex enough to never become boring. The answer to our infinite capacity for boredom is not more sin. The answer is Jesus who is infinitely new. By the way, you can overindulge in Him and never get fat. You can worship Him over and over and never have to look for another God.

Let’s take an honest look at ourselves here. Are we doing the same old sins like a hamster on a wheel thinking if we just keep going further we will arrive at joy? Are we a giant cliché’ and just don’t realize it? Are we really bored with our sin and just too proud to admit it?

Let’s pursue Jesus with the same passion, risk, and thought that we have put into your sins and watch how original we become again and how the boredom fades into the background.