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The Temptation to Numb Out · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

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  Bart Leger: A team of researchers ran an experiment
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  that sounds almost too easy. They put a person alone in a
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  bare room, took away the phone and anything to read and asked
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  them to do one thing for 15 minutes. Just sit there and
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  think. That was it. No task, no screen. 15 minutes alone with
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  your own mind. You'd think people would welcome the break.
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  A quiet room and a few minutes with nothing owed. Instead, most
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  of them hated They fidgeted and couldn't focus. The time crawled.
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  So the researchers added one option to the room. On the table
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  was a small device that would give the person a mild electric
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  shock if they pressed it. Everyone tried the shock
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  beforehand and every single one of them said it hurt enough that
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  they'd pay money never to feel it again. Then the door closed
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  and the 15 minutes began. We'll come back to what people did in
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  that room, but
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  welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger.
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  Here's my own go-to. When something's bothering me and I
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  don't want to feel it, I reach for my phone. Before I've even
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  decided to, my thumb is scrolling. 20 minutes later,
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  I've read nothing I'll remember or have watched a bunch of
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  brainless reels and the thing I was avoiding is still there
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  waiting for me, only now I'm more tired and no closer to
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  dealing with it. So the phone didn't fix anything. I just
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  press pause in my own life for a while and called it a break.
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  Maybe yours isn't a phone. Maybe it's the TV that stays on one
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  more hour or the snack you don't need. None of those things is
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  wrong in and of itself. A show or a snack, they're fine, but
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  watch what happens when one of them becomes the place you to
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  every single time when you don't want to feel what you're feeling.
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  It stops being a break and it begins to be an escape hatch.
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  And the more you use it, the better you get at not feeling
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  anything at all. The Apostle Peter gave the early church a
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  short, pointed instruction for staying awake to your own life.
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  Listen to 1 Peter 5, 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your
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  adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking
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  whom he may devour. Be sober, be vigilant. Peter's calling for
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  wakefulness, enough alertness that you notice what's happening
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  in you and around you instead of drifting through your days on
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  autopilot. Because there's an adversary looking for anyone
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  who's checked out. And here's something to notice. He doesn't
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  always come at you with some dramatic sin. Sometimes his
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  whole strategy is just to keep you numb, keep you scrolling,
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  keep you one show deep, Now here's what God is trying to do
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  what God is trying to deal with in you. A person who feels
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  nothing never grows. And that suits him just fine. Now here's
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  the turn. And it costs something. The way out of numb is presence.
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  And now the distraction only digs a rut deeper. Presence
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  means turning off the screen and letting yourself feel the thing
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  you've been running from, And then bringing that feeling to
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  God. I'll tell you, that's uncomfortable at first. When you
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  stop numbing out, the stuff you've been avoiding comes up.
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  And it sometimes isn't fun. But that discomfort is the beginning
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  of something changing. Numbing keeps you exactly where you are,
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  frozen year after year, wondering why nothing ever gets
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  better. Presence with God is the thing that moves you. Remember
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  that room? The shock button? Well, they shocked themselves.
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  At least a good number of them did. Among the men, 67% pressed
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  the button and zapped themselves at least once, rather than sit
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  there and think. Some did it over and over. These were people
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  who minutes earlier had said they would pay to avoid that
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  exact shock, sit and think, or feel a jolt of pain. Given the
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  choice, a striking number of people chose the pain. The
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  landed on a simple takeaway. Most of us will do almost
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  anything to avoid being alone with what's going on inside of
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  us. We reach for a screen or a snack, anything to keep us from
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  feeling what's going on inside of us. That reflex, the pull to
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  numb out the second things get uncomfortable, is exactly what
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  this episode is about. They chose the pain over the silence.
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  People will hurt themselves rather than sit still with their
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  own thoughts for 15 That's how strong the pull to escape is,
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  and I'm sure you feel it too. But here's what the shock and
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  the scroll both have in common. They keep you from the one thing
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  that would help most, which is being present with yourself and
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  with God long enough for Him to meet you in it. The discomfort
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  you're avoiding might be the doorway He's already standing in.
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  Here's today's challenge. The next time you feel the pull to
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  numb out, catch it, and don't reach for the usual thing.
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  Instead, sit still for five minutes with no screen or no
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  snack and ask yourself what you're trying not to feel right
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  now. Then, tell it to God. Whatever comes up, to bring it
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  to Him. Presence is a muscle, and it gets stronger every time
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  you choose it over the escape hatch. Father, You know the
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  things we reach for when we don't want to feel what's going
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  on inside of us. And thank You that You don't ask us to numb it
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  or fix it, only to bring it to You. Make us alert enough to
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  catch the pull to escape before it pulls us off course. Give us
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  the courage to sit still and hand what's there to You. Meet
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  us in the discomfort we've been avoiding and move us forward. In
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  Jesus' name, Amen. If Daily Devotions for Busy Lives has
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  been an encouragement to you, would you take a minute and
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  leave a rating and review? It helps more people find these
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  devotions, and it only takes a I'd be so grateful. Thanks for
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  joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember,
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  numbing keeps you exactly where you are. But presence with God,
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  even when it's uncomfortable, is what moves you forward. Come
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  back next time for more encouragement to help you live
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  grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a great
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  day.