Friends,
I’m sharing this excerpt from Ken Boa’s book, Life in the Presence of God.
It is compelling.
“Andrew Sullivan, a contemporary commentator, recently captured the state of our current situation in a New York Magazine article about the slower pace of life we’ve lost gradually, almost without realizing it:
‘[The] Judeo-Christian tradition recognized a critical distinction—and tension—between noise and silence, between getting through the day and getting a grip on one’s whole life. The Sabbath—the Jewish institution co-opted by Christianity— was a collective imposition of relative silence, a moment of calm to reflect on our lives under the light of eternity. It helped define much of Western public life once a week for centuries—only to dissipate, with scarcely a passing regret, into the commercial cacophony of the past couple of decades. It reflected a now-battered belief that a sustained spiritual life is simply unfeasible for most mortals without these refuges from noise and work to buffer us and remind us who we really are. But just as modern streetlighting has slowly blotted the stars from the visible skies, so too have cars and planes and factories and flickering digital screens combined to rob us of a silence that was previously regarded as integral to the health of the human imagination. This changes us. It slowly removes—without our even noticing it—the very spaces where we can gain a footing in our minds and souls that is not captive to constant pressures or desires or duties. And the smart phone has all but banished them.’”
Psalm 46:10 puts it this way: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
I hope this encourages you to quiet the noise today.
Kevin Murray
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