When the white noise is gone, you can hear. I mean – you can really hear. Many times what you hear is nothing but complete silence and it can be pretty challenging. However, the silence is speaking and if you really want to know the truth about yourself – and the truth means no harm – there is no other way to get it but through quieting the noise in your life. The truth only wants to set you free.
From the day I started riding my bike from Las Vegas to Washington, DC, I have not listened to my favorite music channels on Pandora or any station. As I pump my legs covering on average 30 miles per day, I’m listening to the wind and waiting for God’s still small voice to speak to me. While in Lake Havasu City, AZ in my tent preparing to leave this morning, I did listen to a little music. I immediately missed the silence. I have not watched the news or read any “Breaking News” editorials at length until tonight by watching Tucker Carson for about 30 minutes. In fact, I unsubscribed from practically all my “YouTube” Channels that provided daily updates on all that is going on. As soon as I see or read something about what’s happening, it interferes with what I’ve been hearing lately – silence.
The noise creates a voidThat paralyzes my knowing
The noise knows nothing of meIs never speaking to meIs only using my soul, my spirit, my mindTo transmit its message to others around meI remain a voidWhen used by the noise
It hates the silence I yield toFor it knows that it will speak directly to me from withinSilence will make known more of who I amWill clarify my whyWill allow my soul to become inspiredAnswers become clearerLies, liars and pretenders are visible from afar
When I remove the noise from within my mind
Most of us have fully embraced this modern age of technology of on demand, smart phones, instant messaging, text messaging and the gamut of social media. One thing that has never changed and will never change is that when you want to “hear” the truth, there are no shortcuts. God still requires you to become still before Him, to draw near him and to wait on him. When you want to hear the truth, you have to choose to stop listening to the “white noise” that you have created by making choices that fit your needs. For some of us, it is just nothing but a constant thread entertainment from music videos, movies, sit-coms, or reality TV shows. In some cases the entertainment is even harmless or inspiring but they are still noise. Others have a none stop feeding of the news. Or we take the entertainment buffet choice and select from something of everything via remote control and the thumb pushing the scroll button. Anything as long as we do not have “silence”.
Why is this?
Deep inside I believe, we are mostly afraid of hearing nothing because we then have to face ourselves, our fears, our excuses, our rationalizations and justifications. We have to deal with the “why” because of “who” back “when” did “what” and this is “how” I ended up this way – scenario. It can become really painful because we then blame ourselves and then punish ourselves with some form of vice that grips us with crushing pressure, we cannot stand the silence. It is then we reach for the noise and go back under. We turn on the TV, the radio, Pandora, grab a glass of wine while we whine inside our souls. We are petrified of facing the silence not realizing that if we endure it, we would hear from God a profound word that would create a “shift” in our hearts.
I’m learning that I have to allow silence to have its place in my life. It gets easier each day and those things that I face are not as bad as I thought they would be because when they show up and stare at me, I just look to the Lord and receive His comfort, His grace and His forgiveness of me. I’m then able to forgive myself and then others. It is then I begin to realize that the silence is speaking healing to me. While I might “feel” it is coming after me – like a puppy so abused – I fail to realize that silence is simply trying to release that chain from around my soul, my mind and my spirit. I am learning more and more to trust the power of simply being still before God. To resists and reject with joy the white noise that seeks to posses my soul.
I can hear God speaking to the depths of my heart more and more each day. I’m praying for America that we would remove ourselves from the poison of the noise and realize that the silence is speaking to help us all to Shift to Greatness!