1. A rubber or plastic nipple or teething ring for a baby to suck or chew on.
2. Something or someone that brings peace.
It may be hard to believe, but these two definitions fit the same word. In the American English Dictionary, these are the definitions under the word pacifier.
The first night my son, Harry, came home from the hospital all he did was scream. He screamed and screamed and screamed some more. He screamed so much I thought my head might explode. My wife, Rachel (a speech pathologist) had heard that using a pacifier before the baby has really taken to the breast can make nursing more difficult. Because of this, she was hesitant to try the pacifier. After the second straight hour of crying, we decided to go for it.
The results were incredible. Silence. My son was indeed pacified.
That's what pacifiers do. They pacify. They bring a moment's peace. And they can be very effective, as long as they are used for that purpose.
The downfall of the pacifier is that the peace only lasts a moment. Maybe two moments. Never more than an hour's worth.
But what if the pacifier was what we turned to whenever Harry cried. Any time he needed to get clean, we gave him the pacifier. Any time he needed to be fed, we gave him the pacifier. Any time he was hurt, we gave him the pacifier. Any time he needed to be changed, we gave him the pacifier.
You know the answer as well as I do. It wouldn't work. A pacifier won't make him clean, it won't feed him, it won't heal his pain or change him. It can only pacify him temporarily. Only an idiot would try to use a pacifier for anything more.
Which proves that we're a bunch of idiots. We feel pain and we turn to alchohol. We feel hungry and we turn to sex. We need to get clean and we hope that good behavior will get us there. We want to be changed and we reach for the right clothes, the right car, the right friends. And we stay hungry and dirty and needy. But, for awhile, we're pacified.
The devil's hope is to keep us pacified. His hope is that if he starts us young on the pacifier, we'll forget where to go when we feel empty. Our only hope is to remember what a pacifier does, and what it can never do.
If we want real change and real fullfillment we have to turn to the one that brings real peace. You see there are two kinds of pacifiers. One is just a weak imitation of what we really need. The other is someone that brings peace. And not just for a moment.
All of us get to that place where we're running on empty. If we ever hope to get full, we have to turn to the source of living water, the one who is the bread of life, the one who lives within us and sustains us; Jesus Christ.
