Amid COVID-19, leisure travel—cruises in particular—have come to a halt. Yet recently a Singapore tourist line announced that pleasure cruises will resume next month.
The destination? Nowhere in particular. A news outlet reports, “Singapore has announced that it will launch pleasure cruises that don’t actually visit any ports in November 2020.”
Travel-starved people are already signing up for this sea adventure, evidently hoping to cure boredom. While this cruise is not pointless, it does have no end point.
This is a picture of how many people are living their lives during the pandemic and beyond. Each day, we mindlessly scroll through social media on our phones—or tune into streaming movie services—looking for a little bit of entertainment, a little cure of boredom. When we look up, hours have gone by, with little or nothing to show for it.
In fact, a recent survey showed that the average American’s daily life spent on screen time amounts to an average of nine hours per day, according to one report. What’s more alarming is that Christians are not immune to this type of time waste.
This should not be the case. In one of his New Testament letters, the Apostle Paul instructs believers to make “the best use of your time because the times are evil” (Eph. 5:16).
While time on the Internet, or consuming movies or shows, can be fine; while “cruises to nowhere in particular” can be harmless, God wants His people to spend their time wisely. He wants us to actively engage in prayer, evangelism, worship, service and fellowship with people around us.
Let me ask this. Are you on a symbolic “cruise to nowhere” right now in life? If so, go ahead and step off and ask God to show you a better use of time, a better use for your life. In doing so, you will turn your “nowhere in particular” heading into a more purpose-filled life.
