Noise. Something that is unrelenting in our world. The noise of traffic. News casts. Propaganda. Voices of haters.
Noise of babies screaming and hyperactive children ignorant of disturbing the beauty of silence.
Machinery. Air conditioners, heaters, refrigerators, politicians.
Noise. Unending. Disturbing the psyche. And the peace.
Peace…
The antithesis of noise. It is hard to grasp at times. Silence becomes pushed out of the way. Sometimes with great intention.
It prevents us connecting to our inner self.
And it prevents us from connecting to that still, small voice of our Creator.
Life…
Complete chaos is not the intention of our existence. Yet there are those in our world who insist on introducing disturbances in our private lives.
Cell phones. Internet. Social media. Television. Radios blaring music or talking heads.
It is nearly impossible to escape.
Silence…
But it can be done. With effort. Interiorly. Through Grace.
I beat continually on the drum of silence. It is important. And we should not neglect nurturing it.
Robert Cardinal Sarah wrote a book on Silence. He wrote, “The language of suffering and silence contradicts the language of the world.”
No one could have said it better.
For in suffering there is great reward. And in silent suffering there is a twofold gain. The imitation of our Redeemer in conjoining our pain with His for the sake of others. And our closeness to Him in uniting our silence with His. For even as He was wrongly accused, He suffered the injustice in silence.
Our world…
In our little world, we suffer. We suffer greatly. The noise prevents us from hearing our heart.
The world wants us to stay distracted and overwhelmed. We cannot make the right decisions for ourselves because we have been plundered and left for dead by those who wish to control us.
But even those in concentration camps, like Viktor Frankl, learned that to find peace one had to reach deep inside where the world could not touch them.
It is the mind that has been sought by others to destroy. For a man who thinks cannot be controlled. And a man with all his faculties cannot be made a puppet.
Control…
That is the end game. Every dictatorship, every bully, and every source of hatred on the planet is the result of someone wanting to control.
They want to control nature, the universe, and their neighbors.
Every one of those in power.
But when there is one supreme controller, what will those beneath him gain? Will they achieve their life here on earth satisfied? Or will they achieve peace inside themselves? Ever?
Conflict with reality…
God takes no sides. He is neither conservative nor liberal, Republican nor Democrat.
His side is a choice between right and wrong.
It is our free choice.
He does not desire slaves to love Him. He asks, and waits for us to respond.
And respond He will.
But we often fail to hear His voice because we cover it up in noise.
Choices…
Our choices are our own. No one else can dictate to us what we choose. Not even the most brutal of men.
But the choices we make now will determine the ultimate prize we will attain.
What will it be?
God? He who is found in the silence of your heart?
Or the world?
You cannot take all the goods in the universe with you when you die. We all go out as we came in. With nothing.
Seek silence. Practice silence.
Do so while you have breathe in you.
Our days are numbered, and no one can tell us when ours will end. Or how.
Seek God’s guidance. You will not find it in the noise and distractions of the world.
He small, still voice is found in silence.