Week Twelve - Shh!

Beside the Well

            I greatly benefit from good music and stillness. Satan knows that, so he produces noise using everything he can to interrupt and distract.

            When my children were younger, they were a distraction—a loved distraction, but nevertheless a distraction.  As teens, they remained a distraction, but this time they were more of an interruption as the business of their lives tried to intersect with the business of my life.  There was little stillness!  And music?  Well, that’s another story.

            Today, though there are only two of us in the house, Satan still manages to bring interruption and distraction that breaks into my soul’s much needed stillness.  He tries to keep me from the joy of focused study or quiet time with my Lord keeping my mind preoccupied until I struggle to hear the still small voice of God.

            Noise is a tool Satan uses on us all.  Our young people are constantly barraged by texts, phones, Instagram, video games, etc. until now their attention span is so small they cannot concentrate for any length of time without a break. 

            An IPad, or some sort of gadget, entertains our youngest children to keep them quiet.  We are not teaching them to master their behaviour, we are just appeasing them with an electronic toy. 

            Even adults, myself included, are easily drawn away by the ding on the phone or the blip from the computer that tells us we have a message.  We drop everything and turn to that noise as if it had priority.

            When we add the pressure of jobs, workmates, time restraints, and everyday background noise, we find more than we can handle.  It is all screaming for our attention—and winning the majority of the time.

            I know I struggle.  Even with an empty house, the noise of my own unbridled thoughts can distract me from stillness.  Music—good music—helps, but even some of it is just noise with no real value or genuine Spirit to be heard. 

            I yearn for quiet communion.  I relish the Spirit dancing in my heart and the freshness of tears in my eyes.  Those times are precious, and far too few, for as soon as they come, noise interrupts.

            Lord, I want to hear you more clearly.  Help me to recognize your voice above the noise and bring my heart and mind into stillness with You.