a fast from the noise
Just last week we had some people working on our roof at our church’s building. Outside my window was an air compressor for their nail guns. It ran all day, non-stop. I read, emailed, met with a few people, and lived with the noise all day long. Finally, just after 5 PM the compressor shut off. It was then I realized how I had become used to the noise. I had functioned in it all day long. It was only when it was shut off that I realized how distracting the compressor was.
In that moment I had an idea. What if I shut the noise out of my life for a time? The reality is that we live in a world filled with noise. Everywhere. All the time. Noise.
As I write this, I am sitting in my office in the building where our church gathers. No one is here but me, which may lead some to believe that it is quiet. But this is not true. The truth is that noise is all around us all the time. Non-stop. If you do not believe me, stop right now, and listen. It is there. A constant drone. And it is not just the noise that you can hear with your ears.
There is the noise of email, Twitter, Facebook, IM-ing, and the constant bombardment of commercial advertising (conservative estimates say that the average American is confronted by over 2,000 slogans and corporate logos each day), and the list goes on and on. It is always there, like an air compressor outside our office window. The more I have become aware of this noise the more I have longed for silence.
When the noise fades there is suddenly space for a lot of other things. Things that have been drowned out by the noise that are more scared and beautiful than all the noise itself. We create space to listen to our own hearts and our own thoughts. We open up time to actually speak to another human being rather than leaving it up to our status update or email. Most importantly we can become more attentive to hearing the still, small voice of God speaking to us, nourishing our hearts and souls.
These thoughts have been rolling around in my head for over a month along with the question, “Is it even possible to notice how loud and annoying our world is until we shut it off?” Through this I have spoken with some friends, sought the counsel of our church leadership, and listened to their hearts. In all of this I have decided to take a fast from the noise – at least the noise I can control.
For the month of November (beginning Sunday, November 1) I will be off email, my blog, Twitter, Facebook, all televison, all radio, and all media (magazine, newspaper, online news sources).
To supplement the noise and the time I spend each day dedicated to email and blogging I am going to replace that time with prayer and meditation. Praying that I will be more absorbed into communion with God.
To supplement the time I spend in the evenings watching playoff baseball or The Office, I am going to spend time reading through the Bible, at least once. It has been a couple of years since I read straight through the Bible, and so I am going to begin November 1 and read through it as many times as I am able.
My hope is that as I turn down the volume on the noise in this world, I will turn up the volume increasingly on the voice of God as he speaks to my heart and soul. Henri Nouwen writes, “In a world that victimizes us by its compulsions (and noise), we are called to a solitude where we can (turn down the volume of our world) and struggle against our anger and greed and let our new self be born in the loving encounter with Jesus Christ.” (Italics Mine).
And so it is that I turn off the air compressors in my world and bask in the solitude of silence.