Comfortably Numb

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters

Comfortably Numb

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Psalm 51:12

I bet this title got Chris Hugh’s attention. No Chris, this isn’t about Pink Floyd but I can’t help but draw a comparison from their song to today’s Church.

I was watching a video on leadership recently and the statement was made that a weakness in most leaders is that the longer they are in their position the more removed they are from reality. He suggested that a “numbness” takes affect and the individual loses sight of the original vision and the everyday dealing become the norm. He says it’s healthy for the leader to spend some time with a new team member and get a fresh perspective.

I think the same is true with us as believers, the longer we believe the more “comfortable numb” we can become. In Psalm 51, David is lamenting over his sinful act with Bathsheba and by the 12 verse he begs God to “restore to me the joy of my salvation”.

This occured to me when I found myself just singing in Church, it was a familiar song and my hands were in my pockets and I was doing worship. That’s what I call “Comfortably Numb”.

When I talk to worship leaders they often tell me a struggle they have is to lead worship certain times because of the defeated look on most people’s faces. It’s as if they are in a dentist waiting room waiting to get a tooth pulled.

I suggest if you can relate to this and it makes you feel ill at the numbness you experience that there are a few things you could do. One would be to spend some time reminiscing when you first got saved, that time when you felt like a child in the arms of your heavenly Father and nothing else mattered. The other is to hang around new believers, like the man suggested a boss should do by getting a fresh perspective with a new team member, it’s good to be around the excitement of someone who has just received the Lord.

I pray that when we realize we are just “doing church” that we would become “Uncomfortably Numb”, and that the Spirit of God will awaken us to “Be the Church”. Hear the words of the Apostle Paul as he is influenced by the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 13, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts”, Amen? – Rob Russomano is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and serves full-time at America’s Keswick. You can write Rob at rrussomano@americaskeswick.org

Daily Bible Reading: Isa. 3-4, Mark 1:23-45

Think About This: The existence of hypocrites does not prove the non-existence of true believers. —C.H. Spurgeon

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left … Joshua 23:6