{"id":41315,"date":"2015-06-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/thrill-seeking-activities-require-tedium\/"},"modified":"2015-06-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T00:00:00","slug":"thrill-seeking-activities-require-tedium","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/thrill-seeking-activities-require-tedium\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrill-Seeking Activities Require Tedium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You might assume that extreme activities&mdash;like traveling through space or climbing Mount Everest&mdash;provide constant excitement. Not exactly. A book by two researchers, <em class=\"citation\">Extreme: Why Some People Thrive at the Limits<\/em>, shows that many thrill-seeking activities involve a lot of ordinary and even tedious moments. For instance, here&#39;s how the NASA astronaut Gene Cernan summed up his overall experience of space travel: &quot;Funny thing happened on the way to the moon: not much.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Space travelers aren&#39;t the only ones killing time and battling boredom. During their free climb of the Dawn Wall in Yosemite National Park in California, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson spend a large part of many days waiting for shade to hit the wall so they could begin to climb. One study of explorers scaling a Himalayan peak found that they spent a mere four percent of their time actually climbing. The book concluded that although a yearning for novelty and excitement may draw people into extreme activities, these pursuits inevitably require long periods of patience, discipline, and perseverance.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: <strong>Disciples; Discipleship; Sanctification; Patience; Waiting on God<\/strong>&mdash;In the same way, the Christian journey may start with a burst of excitement and adventure, but over the long haul following Jesus, growing in maturity, and serving him often requires many seasons of patience, discipline, and waiting on God.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3592,3640,3792,3793,3794,3865,4438,4611,4629,4882,5046,5049,5258],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-41315","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-christian-life","tax_ctp_tags-commitment","tax_ctp_tags-disciples","tax_ctp_tags-discipleship","tax_ctp_tags-discipline","tax_ctp_tags-endurance","tax_ctp_tags-maturity","tax_ctp_tags-patience","tax_ctp_tags-perseverance","tax_ctp_tags-sanctification","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-growth","tax_ctp_tags-waiting-on-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thrill-Seeking Activities Require Tedium - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/thrill-seeking-activities-require-tedium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thrill-Seeking Activities Require Tedium - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You might assume that extreme activities&mdash;like traveling through space or climbing Mount Everest&mdash;provide constant excitement. 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