Background Noise

My husband and I are both pretty quiet people. We like quiet. At times we even crave quiet. It seems as if every time we go into a restaurant we will inevitably be seated next to the loudest person, couple or family there. Most of the time we just laugh about it and laugh at ourselves a little bit for being somewhat “intolerant” of the noise around us. Other times we get a bit frustrated about it. It’s hard to focus on having a conversation with each other when you are trying to tune out the background noise.

We all struggle with background noise at times don’t we? The unwanted meaningless sound coming from behind us that interferes with where our attention should be. It catches our attention, but distracts us from our purpose. It confuses us so we don’t know where to turn. We hear the wrong things. We don’t hear what we need to hear. We can’t concentrate. We are sometimes even distracted to the point of actually turning to see what’s going on behind us.

In life, background noise can come in the form of stress, worry, work, family, illness, media, etc. Not necessarily all bad things, but certainly things that may distract us from our true purpose. I find that sometimes the noise is so loud that I can’t hear the voice of God. I get so distracted by the busyness of life that I take my eyes off Him and lose His voice. How can we hear the voice of God in the midst of all the noise in our lives?

We hear from God by reading His Word. However, it’s not enough to read the Word without paying attention to it. In Hebrews 2:1 the writer says, “For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it.” Sometimes that background noise is really attractive to us. When we are hearing what we want to hear we may not be listening to what we NEED to hear. It’s so important to be focused on the right voices. I participate in a Pilates class every week. If you are not familiar with Pilates it is very similar to yoga. The goal of Pilates is to strengthen the core muscles through a series of stretching exercises along with deep breathing. If you’ve ever done either, you know how much you have to focus on both the movements and the breathing. In my Pilates class we end each session with some balance postures. Have you ever tried to balance on one foot? It’s not as easy as it looks. My instructor always advises us to stare straight ahead and find a focal point. Guess what happens the minute you take your eyes off that point? You begin to lose your balance and may even fall. This reminds me of what happened to Peter in Matthew 14:22-33. Peter had enough faith to step out of the boat into the water. He was focused on getting to Jesus. But, he was distracted by the waves and the wind around him. As soon as he took his focus off of Jesus he began to sink.

It’s the same for us. As long as we keep our eyes on Jesus the distractions and background noise of the world will fade and his voice will become clear. Only then can we truly hear what we need to hear.

What are you focusing on today?