NOISE

We live in a culture of noise. Regardless of our attempts to escape to silence, noise continues to infiltrate our lives. Even when we try to be quiet, there is still noise coming from someone or something else. This is even evidenced in my own life. I can't walk into my apartment at night without turning on the television. I can't sleep at night without the whisper of a blowing fan. I can't go for a walk without the company of music or a cell phone. I can't even drive without something on the radio. I have become immune to noise and prejudiced to silence. On any given day, this reality can mute or simply distort God's voice in my life. That cannot be right.

There are numerous accounts in the Gospels of Jesus seeking moments of silence and solitude with the Father. In our own noisy lives today, it is crucial we allow these accounts to challenge us to pursue the Father in the same way. If we fail to do so, God's voice is most certainly going to be muted or distorted in our Christian walk with Him. Note the following characteristics of Jesus and His lifestyle of silence and solitude.

1. Silence and solitude characterized the life of Christ.

Luke tells us in his account of Jesus' life that "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:16). This tells us that Jesus did not simply seek moments alone with the Father when the temperature of life was high, but that His life was characterized by moments alone with His Father. But, why was that the case? Why was this discipline so crucial to Jesus' life on earth and so imperative for us to follow?

a. It keeps us God-centered. After the feeding of the five thousand, the Apostle John tells us that "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself" (John 6:15). Jesus knew in His supernatural knowledge that the people would try to make Him king by force as a result of His miraculous works. In order to avoid such political chaos brought on by a possible mob of people, He withdraws to be alone with the Father. Why? In order to remain focused on God's will--not on that of man. The same is true for us. Without moments of solitude with the Father, we will be much more inclined to go with the flow around us rather than submitting to the will of Almighty God.

b. It gives clarity in decision making. In Luke 6:12-13, we read, "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles." This is one of the most important decisions of the earthly ministry of Christ--choosing the men in whom He would invest His life and entrust with His ministry. Strikingly, He does not consult opinion on top of opinion or read the best "help" book down at the local bookstore, but instead, He simply spends an entire night seeking the will of His Father. How rash do we make decisions without even consulting the Lord? This decision-making is not so much running every single decision before God, but rather living your life in such close communion with God through Christ, that decisions are more easily discernable.

c. It is an opportunity to simply refuel. Jesus has just healed and ministered to many people, performing supernatural acts of ministry. Afterwards, what was His top priority and focus? Go be alone with God--"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed" (Mark 1:35). Even the perfect Son of God needed solitude with the Father to just refuel. How much more do we? Why? To confess our dependence upon Him. To acknowledge that we are nothing without Him. This is not a mystical, new age experience, but rather a component of an active, living relationship with the Living God of the universe who has given us the opportunity of relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ. If Jesus needed to be refueled, certainly we do.

2. In seeking silence and solitude, Jesus had an intentional time and an intentional place.

Notice again Mark 1:35. It recounts Jesus as going to a "solitary place" when it was "very early in the morning". His times of silence and solitude were intentional. They were not stumbled upon, but rather planned times of intimacy with the Father. Personally, this is getting increasingly difficult because of our culture of noise.

The other day, I was in my office intentionally spending times of solitude with the Lord. As I was praying, the roar of a truck and the squeal of sirens pierced through the silence. One floor up, the sounds of chairs moving across the tiled floor sounded forth. On the street below, voices yelled across the way to friends on the other side. Even in my intention to close the door and "get away", noise still enveloped the air. We cannot help but experience noise, but do we intentionally go to a place where distractions are left to a minimum? Do we seek those times and places where the cell phone is placed on silent, the television is left blank, the music is off, and we simply come before the God of the universe in quiet submission in order to hear His still small voice?

Without intentionally seeking consistent and uninterupted moments of silence and solitude, our personal growth as followers of Jesus Christ will be inhibited. It is virtually impossible to be a growing and thriving follower of Christ apart from spending those moments with Him. I find it interesting that we say, "I can't hear from God" and "I have no idea what God wants me to do" while at the same time, we write off intimate times with the Lord. And, even when we do seek those times, the temptation is there to pray while listening to music or to read from Scripture while watching television or something similar. My question, however, is how can we expect to hear from God while we are filling even our "quiet" times with outside noise? My contention is not the eradication of all sources of noise from our lives, but rather a pursuance of moments of sheer silence with God. Will you intentionally seek those times and places? Your life will be forever changed.