Remember the Village Fair is next Saturday from 9:30am-1:30pm. There are wonderful treasures, treats, music, and raffles. Don’t miss out!!! Join our 5K Walk/Run at 8:30am.
1 Kings 19: 11-12: Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
Matthew 14: 29-31: “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
I had a teacher who once turned on really loud music for when we returned to class after lunch. He expected us to come in and pay attention to the thing that was the “loudest in the room”. We didn’t meet his expectations.
That class came in and talked louder and louder. We met the loud music with our own loud voices, trying to be heard over the din. He turned the music up. We turned our voices up. He turned the music up. We turned our voices up. Until it was this cacophony of noise, noise, noise.
When he tried to settle us in to class, we were unsettled. He was unsettled. We were churned up by the loudness of the room. He was upset that we didn’t show up and realize we were supposed to stop and listen to the “loudest thing in the room”. We didn’t do what we were supposed to do and we didn’t learn what we were supposed to learn. We were all caught up in the loud chaos even though it was over. Everyone was agitated and irritated.
I may not have learned what I was “supposed” to learn, but I learned something different.
It’s not the wind or the shattering rocks or the earthquakes or the fire. It’s not the chaos and the crazy. It’s not the agitation or the loud music. It’s not the noise, noise, noise where we find answers.
Even when it feels like we’ve been hit over the head with the answers, it’s not that noise. It’s the noise within the noise. It’s the “tiny whispering sound”.
The “tiny whispering sound”.
It’s the stillness and the deep, unshakable focus.
Peter is practicing this when he walks on water. He hears the still voice in the chaos: “Come”. He anchors himself with deep, unshakable focus on Jesus. He walks on water…
…until the noise steps in and disturbs the focus. Maybe the noise of the storm. Maybe the noise of his other companions.. Maybe the noise in his own head: I’m doing this!!! I’m doing this!!! How am I doing this?
We’re so surrounded by noise that we don’t even notice it anymore. There are layers and layers of noise. Big noise and little noises and everything in between. I remember someone reflecting at a silent retreat that when she picked up a book to read even those words were noisy compared to the silence that had included no written word. It’s true. Some books are louder than others…
Even in the “quiet” there is noise. We tell ourselves that cell phones are “quiet time”. We play that last game or check that last post before we go to bed and wonder why we can’t sleep. It seems like quiet time, but it’s really not. There’s the noise and distraction of the phone that awakens and agitates and distracts. Even light as noise. We really notice this when we turn up the quiet and then…return.
This is why we need Sabbath and Still, Quiet Spaces. The times and places where we can quiet the mind and clear out the outer chaos and noise and really, really…listen. We notice how much noise there is upon “return”.
The opposite it true. The storms and winds and fires and quakes are the noise that perhaps highlight the Quiet. The noise and the fear is awakened. Senses are heightened. And then, that small: “fear not” and the tiny whispering sound that comes next. There is the sudden fullness of stillness and in the quiet…the whispering sound. The still, small voice…
It takes courage to be still and listen. Deep, heart courage. To truly listen to what is asked of us and take stock of who we are, where we are, and what we are to become. We are not here to be the center point, we are here to serve the center point. Bur we cannot see truly the center point outside of ourselves without…the stillness. The quiet amidst the competing noise.
Listen.
What is that still, small voice saying to you? What is that tiny, whispering voice asking of you? What is it awakening in your heart?
It simply takes practice to walk through the storm and on the water. It takes deep, unshakable focus on what matters most to change the world. To do the work you are called to do.
To listen. “Come.”
To focus on that beacon in the storm.
Don’t get distracted by the arguing voices, the angry rants, the competing noise vying for your attention. Don’t get overwhelmed by the voices of worry, fear, disasters, pain, and failures…
Focus. Shhhh….
Listen. Shhh….
It’s there. That tiny whispering voice just waiting for you to hear.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 