The Devil Futility

Today I want to talk about a song from my favorite band, The Cure. The song is “Untitled,” the final track on “Disintegration.” (Which is a masterpiece.)

This is a song about lost love, and we can hear the man’s desperation in the lyrics.

Hopelessly fighting the devil futility
Feeling the monster climb deeper inside of me
Feeling him gnawing my heart away hungrily

These lyrics come in the last refrain of the song, and there is no resolution to the man’s emptiness.

The idea of futility not only being a feeling, but also a devil, is an image that has always stuck with me. And then the lyrics about the monster climbing deeper into his heart and gnawing away at him drive the desperation home. These are among the saddest lyrics Robert Smith has written.

In addition to the human aspect of the song, there is a spiritual one as well. It makes me think of a lack of belief in God, misplaced trust in other people, and trying to do things on your own without God.

I am going to use this song to look at where we turn when we need to find strength.

Faith in Others

There is one moment in the beginning of the song when it seems as if the person is surrendering to God:

Hopelessly adrift in the eyes of the ghost again
Down on my knees and my hands in the air again

But it becomes evident he is on his knees lamenting the loss of this person and not reaching out to God.

Pushing my face in the memory of you again

Today I want to write about the contrast between building your house on an earthly foundation, versus building your house on a Godly foundation.

We all have to put our trust in people sometimes. But this song goes deeper than that; this is about putting all of your faith and trust in another person to fill a void in your heart, as if that person alone is the answer.

This is about building your life around anything other than God.

When that person fails you or lets you down, as so often happens in relationships, where do you turn? When the devil futility becomes the monster that gnaws at your heart, what do you do?

When you don’t have God in your heart, you look for something to fill the emptiness, but the Bible warns us about this, “do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.” (1 Samuel 12:21, some versions translate the Hebrew as “futile”)

When people become the heart of who we are, they become our idols. When you put all of your faith in people, you have built your house on a foundation of sand. When the rain falls and the floods come, the whole house will fall on top of you. (See Matthew 7:26-27)

This is where the problem lies and the feeling of futility comes in. The futility does not come from the situation. It manifests itself through the situation, but it comes from misplaced faith because you have nowhere else to turn.

Faith in God

An idol cannot fill a deep longing–it takes God.

Your foundation should be built on the rock of Christ. Then, when the rains fall and the floods come, they will beat upon your house, but your house will stand tall on the word of God. (Matthew 7:24-25)

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be close to somebody, or that it won’t be painful. But when you have God to turn to in your time of need, instead of relying on yourself, that sense of futility will not overtake you. Because God is your refuge and your strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1) He is where you turn in your time of need.

Often, when times get tough, our first reaction is to try to solve everything by ourselves, or with the help of other flawed people, and this can be futile. We often don’t turn to God when we need Him the most.

Is there a person you turn to before you turn to God? Is there something you seek comfort in before laying it all at God’s feet? If so, your foundation is not sturdy and it can be washed away when the tide comes in.

It’s through God that we have strength and we have hope, and where there’s hope futility cannot gain a foothold.

The devil is always looking for an opportunity to strike. He will play on our emotions, and futility is just one of them. He tries to get inside our minds to sow seeds of doubt and despair when we are vulnerable.

He will become the monster crawling deep inside of you, gnawing hungrily at your heart. If you let him. But the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. (Philippians 4:7)

Instead of “hopelessly fighting the devil futility,” we have hope in Christ, and the peace he brings us will always defeat the feeling of futility.

With this hope in Christ we move from futility into freedom.

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