{"id":42649,"date":"2013-10-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/comedian-louis-ck-on-forever-empty\/"},"modified":"2013-10-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T00:00:00","slug":"comedian-louis-ck-on-forever-empty","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/comedian-louis-ck-on-forever-empty\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedian Louis C.K. on the ‘Forever Empty’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The usually crass comedian Louis C.K. offered some insightful comments about our soul-numbing addiction to technology. On Late Night with Conan O'Brien<\/em> he said:<\/p>\n\n

\n

You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. That's what the phones are taking away, is the ability to just sit there. That's being a person. Because underneath everything in your life there is that thing, that empty—forever empty. That knowledge that it's all for nothing and that you're alone. It's down there.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n

And sometimes when things clear away, you're not watching anything, you're in your car, and you start going, 'Oh no, here it comes. That I'm alone.' It starts to visit on you. Just this sadness. Life is tremendously sad, just by being in it …<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

C.K. then shared a story about the time he was in his car listening to a Bruce Springsteen song ("Jungleland") that made him really sad:<\/p>\n\n

\n

And I go, "Oh, I'm getting sad, gotta get the phone and write 'hi' to like 50 people." Then I said, "You know what, don't. Just be sad. Just let the sadness, stand in the way of it, and let it hit you like a truck." The thing is, because we don't want that first bit of sad, we push it away with a little phone or [sex] or the food. You never feel completely sad or completely happy, you just feel kinda satisfied with your product, and then you die.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3535,3726,3861,4027,4092,4117,4194,4246,4363,4386,4873,4885,5016,5145,5146],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42649","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-busyness","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-emptiness","tax_ctp_tags-fulfillment","tax_ctp_tags-gratitude","tax_ctp_tags-happiness","tax_ctp_tags-hunger","tax_ctp_tags-ingratitude","tax_ctp_tags-lent","tax_ctp_tags-longing","tax_ctp_tags-sadness","tax_ctp_tags-satisfaction","tax_ctp_tags-solitude","tax_ctp_tags-thanks","tax_ctp_tags-thanksgiving"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nComedian Louis C.K. on the 'Forever Empty' - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/comedian-louis-ck-on-forever-empty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Comedian Louis C.K. on the 'Forever Empty' - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The usually crass comedian Louis C.K. offered some insightful comments about our soul-numbing addiction to technology. 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