And as I prepared for what I was going to say the words “comfortably numb” came to my mind, that seem to describe Eli and his inability to awaken his sense of hearing to the voice of God. It’s actually the title of a song by Roger Waters and David Gilmour of the Pink Floyd, that quintessentially seventies rock band, (for those of us old enough to have lived through those heady years). There’s even a live recording of the most unlikely pairing of the band with Van Morrison in Berlin in 1990, Van looking like a middle aged grocer from East Belfast among those long haired rock stars.
Anyway the words “comfortably numb” seemed to fit Eli, who, while heavily involved in the religious business of dealing with the divine, had closed off his mind and heart so totally to the still small voice of the Spirit that it took the alive and listening heart of a young guy, Samuel, barely into his teens, to awaken him. Yes, Eli, there IS someone out there, and he DOES have something he wants to say to you.
Is there not a danger that we might somehow become “comfortably numb” also, in all the noise that surrounds us in our twenty first century way of living. Are we not always in danger of crowding God out with our incessant activity and babble.
The last few lines of the Pink Floyd song, reflect something I’ve often thought, that the “Samuel” in us, that spiritually alive component, that is youthful, responsive and sensitive, can drift from us so easily. Lord, keep me spiritually “youthful”, even in my old age.Help me not become “comfortably numb”
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
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGOTJyE5JPM
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