Comfortably Numb

As I looked at the world around me, a phrase from my high school years came rushing into my mind, the phrase,"comfortably numb."

It is the title of a song from my time in high school, and as titles go, it is tainted with multiple connotations that abound.

Yet, the phrase is too appropriate to pass by at this present time as it applies so well to those of us who reside on this rock speeding around a burning star.

The words mean nothing to some and everything to others. Combined, they form phrase and sentences... some leading to the next sentence and others with seemingly no connection at all. The last stanza reads...

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

What is it to be comfortably numb? To be numb is to be emotionally unresponsive; indifferent. It is to be void of the power to feel or move normally. To be numb is to become paralyzed and unable to move in response to movement because non-movement has become comfort, but to become comfortably numb is another state all together. I am reminded of the frog in the skillet... turn the heat up slowly and the frog will never move, succumbing to death because the frog has become "comfortably numb" with the skillet.

Revelation 3:15 states,  

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (NIV)

I think being comfortably numb is akin to being lukewarm: being neither hot nor cold. Clearly, the scriptures warn against becoming lukewarm. Jesus, himself, teaches against becoming lukewarm in Matthew 12:30,

"Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." (ESV, NIV)

Defined, a person who is lukewarm is indifferent, apathetic, tepid, unenthusiastic.... has become comfortable with non-movement, has become... comfortably numb.

Why do we seek lukewarmness? I know why I do. I do not want to lose what I have. I want to provide for my family. I do not want to judge. I do not want to be critical. All of these are good reasons, but they have roots in the desire to prosper, and that desire is a misguided desire when it comes to Christ.

John Calvin wrote the following regarding prosperity,

“Prosperity inebriates men, so that they take delights in their own merits.  Nothing is more dangerous than to be blinded by prosperity.”

And, why are we blinded by prosperity? Because we were created to serve and worship one... Jesus Christ. Striving for prosperity is, in essence, worshiping ourselves, at least for me it is.

Tomorrow, I will rise again and prayfully ask for help in my daily fight to avoid becoming "comfortably numb."