Noise

There’s so much noise in our society these days. I mean noise in the sense of distractions. Cell phones, texting, music (whether yours are the car next to yours), iPods or equivalent type of devices, television, radio, Hilo Monster barking, etc… To just sit and listen to the birds twittering is almost a rare thing. It’s one reason I’m looking forward to going to the Mt. Hermon conference in California in a couple of weeks. Surrounded by redwoods, I’m going to be looking for a little peace and quiet. Thinking about this made me think how our society is inundated with noise, but not just noise, but advice and ‘do this, don’t do that,’ ‘go this way!’ Between the Democrats and Republicans screeching at us, who do you listen to? Who is telling the truth? And I don’t just mean politics. I mean, any advice that you’re given: how do you know it’s truth?

Some of us hear our dads in our heads giving us advice that they spoke to us as a child. Maybe even some of us hear an angry tone, maybe a parent or a teacher telling us ‘you aren’t capable of doing that!’ Some of us hear our moms telling us there’s only one way to cook green beans. Maybe we hear an angry sibling telling us we’re worthless. Whatever! We carry around in our heads all the advice we’ve been given over the years–the good and the bad. And it affects us.

So what do you do with the voices in your head? Philippians 4:8 it. That’s what. “Finally, brothers (or sisters!), whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” So let’s say you have in your head someone saying, ‘You’ll never amount to much.’ Weigh that against Phil. 4:8. Is that true? NO! Because the bible tells us that you are loved! Loved so much that God sent His son to save you. The bible says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.’ Does that sound like ‘never amounting to much?’ No! So weigh those voices against the truth of the Word of God.

But sometimes it takes ‘be still, and know that I am God’ to hear the truth. Sometimes we need to get away, to be quiet, to find a peaceful environment (which is often early in the morning at my house when even the Hilo Monster is sleepy and not trying to chew everything in sight) to be still and let the Word wash over us, seep into us and flush out the lies and fill us with the truth which will quiet all the noise in our every day lives.