The Temptation to Numb Out

A team of researchers ran an experiment

that sounds almost too easy. They put a person alone in a

bare room, took away the phone and anything to read and asked

them to do one thing for 15 minutes. Just sit there and

think. That was it. No task, no screen. 15 minutes alone with

your own mind. You'd think people would welcome the break.

A quiet room and a few minutes with nothing owed. Instead, most

of them hated They fidgeted and couldn't focus. The time crawled.

So the researchers added one option to the room. On the table

was a small device that would give the person a mild electric

shock if they pressed it. Everyone tried the shock

beforehand and every single one of them said it hurt enough that

they'd pay money never to feel it again. Then the door closed

and the 15 minutes began. We'll come back to what people did in

that room, but

welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger.

Here's my own go-to. When something's bothering me and I

don't want to feel it, I reach for my phone. Before I've even

decided to, my thumb is scrolling. 20 minutes later,

I've read nothing I'll remember or have watched a bunch of

brainless reels and the thing I was avoiding is still there

waiting for me, only now I'm more tired and no closer to

dealing with it. So the phone didn't fix anything. I just

press pause in my own life for a while and called it a break.

Maybe yours isn't a phone. Maybe it's the TV that stays on one

more hour or the snack you don't need. None of those things is

wrong in and of itself. A show or a snack, they're fine, but

watch what happens when one of them becomes the place you to

every single time when you don't want to feel what you're feeling.

It stops being a break and it begins to be an escape hatch.

And the more you use it, the better you get at not feeling

anything at all. The Apostle Peter gave the early church a

short, pointed instruction for staying awake to your own life.

Listen to 1 Peter 5, 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your

adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking

whom he may devour. Be sober, be vigilant. Peter's calling for

wakefulness, enough alertness that you notice what's happening

in you and around you instead of drifting through your days on

autopilot. Because there's an adversary looking for anyone

who's checked out. And here's something to notice. He doesn't

always come at you with some dramatic sin. Sometimes his

whole strategy is just to keep you numb, keep you scrolling,

keep you one show deep, Now here's what God is trying to do

what God is trying to deal with in you. A person who feels

nothing never grows. And that suits him just fine. Now here's

the turn. And it costs something. The way out of numb is presence.

And now the distraction only digs a rut deeper. Presence

means turning off the screen and letting yourself feel the thing

you've been running from, And then bringing that feeling to

God. I'll tell you, that's uncomfortable at first. When you

stop numbing out, the stuff you've been avoiding comes up.

And it sometimes isn't fun. But that discomfort is the beginning

of something changing. Numbing keeps you exactly where you are,

frozen year after year, wondering why nothing ever gets

better. Presence with God is the thing that moves you. Remember

that room? The shock button? Well, they shocked themselves.

At least a good number of them did. Among the men, 67% pressed

the button and zapped themselves at least once, rather than sit

there and think. Some did it over and over. These were people

who minutes earlier had said they would pay to avoid that

exact shock, sit and think, or feel a jolt of pain. Given the

choice, a striking number of people chose the pain. The

landed on a simple takeaway. Most of us will do almost

anything to avoid being alone with what's going on inside of

us. We reach for a screen or a snack, anything to keep us from

feeling what's going on inside of us. That reflex, the pull to

numb out the second things get uncomfortable, is exactly what

this episode is about. They chose the pain over the silence.

People will hurt themselves rather than sit still with their

own thoughts for 15 That's how strong the pull to escape is,

and I'm sure you feel it too. But here's what the shock and

the scroll both have in common. They keep you from the one thing

that would help most, which is being present with yourself and

with God long enough for Him to meet you in it. The discomfort

you're avoiding might be the doorway He's already standing in.

Here's today's challenge. The next time you feel the pull to

numb out, catch it, and don't reach for the usual thing.

Instead, sit still for five minutes with no screen or no

snack and ask yourself what you're trying not to feel right

now. Then, tell it to God. Whatever comes up, to bring it

to Him. Presence is a muscle, and it gets stronger every time

you choose it over the escape hatch. Father, You know the

things we reach for when we don't want to feel what's going

on inside of us. And thank You that You don't ask us to numb it

or fix it, only to bring it to You. Make us alert enough to

catch the pull to escape before it pulls us off course. Give us

the courage to sit still and hand what's there to You. Meet

us in the discomfort we've been avoiding and move us forward. In

Jesus' name, Amen. If Daily Devotions for Busy Lives has

been an encouragement to you, would you take a minute and

leave a rating and review? It helps more people find these

devotions, and it only takes a I'd be so grateful. Thanks for

joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember,

numbing keeps you exactly where you are. But presence with God,

even when it's uncomfortable, is what moves you forward. Come

back next time for more encouragement to help you live

grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a great

day.