Life is crazy. I get it. As a substitute teacher, I am constantly on the run from one school to another. Up at what I have eloquently deemed the “butt crack of dawn when no human should ever have to arise,” life begins with a flurry of alarms, brewing coffee pots, and mumbled morning conversation. Jumping in the car starts off my 40 minute commute as I turn up my morning tunes. On the walk into school, staff greet each other with friendly smiles and waves as they rush out of the cold and into the heated haven. Upon entering, one is bombarded by sounds laughter and chatter of passing by students. Throughout the day, the middle schoolers continue to talk, text, and study their way to the end of the day, creating consistent levels of noise that could cause an unsuspecting visitor quite the headache. After school its off to the gym where, even though a plethora of televisions plaster the walls, every member can be seen listening to music, texting, or reading a magazine while simultaneously attempting to exercise. Once I have officially exhausted my will to run on a treadmill, it’s time to go home, where I am welcomed with warm conversation and the television playing in the background. If I’m lucky (or in the mood to procrastinate), I watch television and play games on my phone. Then it’s off to bed where I text my friends, read my Bible, and say my prayers. This is all done after turning on the fan before bed, since the sound seems to welcome sleep.
Notice anything? Maybe not; it’s taken me quite some time to realize it myself. My day is filled by a constant stream of noise coming in different forms throughout the day. And I’d bet that yours is too. I didn’t think much of it until I read a book called Static Jedi. In his book, Eric Samuel Timm talks about this everyday noise. He says:
“We need the noise to sleep, to rest. The silence has a foreign nature to it. It’s too quiet. It’s uncomfortable. It’s out of place, out of pace, with our lives. Unless we are purposeful and watchful regarding our daily moments, all those precious minutes are ruthlessly stolen by the noise.”
Wow. I don’t know about you, but that made me pause and rethink my day to day living. You may be wondering what the big deal is about all of this noise. I was too. Until I remembered a story out of 1 Kings that stopped me in my tracks. Elijah is told to go up on a mountain and God would come. In verses 11 and 12, it says. “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” God speaks to us in the silence. When our lives are filled with the constant hum of noise, we are missing out on the opportunity to hear God’s voice.
This is the point in my story where you become frustrated. “Noise is everywhere Anna,” I can hear you saying. And I know. But it is so important to figure out how we can slow down our fast-paced word and cut out the excess noise to hear the Lord’s voice. God has some awesome things to say and I definitely don’t want to miss out. We need to learn to become a Static Jedi; one who masters the noise we consistently encounter each day. I am definitely not a Static Jedi. I’m not a Yoda at blocking out the static of this world. I’m not even an Obi-Wan Kenobi (yes I did just Google Star Wars characters and have no idea who these actual characters are, you caught me). But I know that I want to keep seeking the silence so that I can hear God’s voice. My hope and prayer for you is that you would do the same. So what do you say? Let’s grab our earplugs, light sabers, and Bibles and embrace the silence together.
