Turning Down the Noise
“The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.
–Mark 1:12-13, NLT
As a nation and culture, we lead some very noisy lives. We’re distracted by the deafening clamor of our minds, the pulls and responsibilities on the priorities of our hearts, and the endless escape of a dopamine fix promised by an ever-present phone at hand.
Boredom doesn’t exist anymore. Not long ago, making an urgent call in public required a pocketful of change and a pay phone. A missed call might be returned days later. While standing in the grocery line, there was nothing to do but wait, sit in the boredom, or talk to someone around you.
Today, there seems to be no place to simply sit with ourselves in quiet and collect our thoughts. The fabric of silence and solitude has unraveled, eliminating patterns of retreat from the noise and distractions. Is there any place where we are fully present anymore? At home? At work? With friends? With God? Are we even capable of such isolation anymore? At the first quiet moment, we escape to streaming services or social media, review our calendars and to-do lists. We reach for anything to occupy the silence. And when the silence is gone, there is no rest. The incessant noise has left us fatigued but restless, searching for peace and restoration, desperate for silence but afraid to enter into it.
Every escape has a destination, but not every destination is desirable. We can go on vacation and come back home and feel more uneasy and depleted than before we left. But perhaps the refueling we long for will not be found in the next escape, but in the seeking of something far more lifegiving.
What do we even mean when we talk about is silence? There are really two dimensions: external and internal silence. Finding external silence is self-explanatory and relatively simple, but the real work comes in finding internal silence. Often our internal noise is so loud it seems to drown out everything else, including the voice of God, but we can’t simply turn off our emotions, our worries, and our anxieties. To get rid of them, we have to deal with them. We have to face them head on, but that can bring anxieties of its own. We don’t want to deal with the internal noise, even if we know it’s causing a chasm between us and God. We can so fear engaging with the internal voices that we find ourselves numbing it with more external noise. And so the phone once again comes out of the pocket. It makes the moment bearable, but next time the internal noises will be even louder.
This leaves us always wanting more from God. We never feel content and we may begin to listen to voices or seek affirmation from other places. As John Mark Comer writes in The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, “The noise of the modern world makes us deaf to the voice of God, drowning out the one input we most need.”
True silence is silencing both external and internal noise in order to hear what is going on within your soul. It is learning how to sit still and do nothing but breathe.
What noises or voices are you listening to that are drowning out the voice of the One you really need to be hearing? Is it your own voice or the voice of other people in your life? What are the voices talking about? Family matters, work, social media, politics, sex, or heavy expectations? What’s keeping you from silence?
Jesus spent time with people, but he also spent time in silence. Silence is time alone in the quiet with our souls before God. We want to be able to hear our own soul and hear God. It’s in silence we begin to see what’s buried deep within us and it begins to come to the surface. This is where we often try to quiet the silence, but it’s in that hard place that we can ultimately see ourselves, acknowledge who we really are, and experience freedom. It breaks the chains our internal noise had over us.
We have to be intentional about finding silence if we are to develop the practice of solitude. You cannot have solitude without silence. Solitude is when you are alone with God and your own soul, not to be confused with isolation or loneliness. As Richard Foster writes in The Celebration of Discipline, “Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.” When we are in a place of silence and solitude, we are not by ourselves, but instead, we are in communion with God. Solitude unveils the fractures in our soul so that we may turn towards our loving Father and say, “Here I am; this is me,” and experience the true love, grace, and acceptance of God.
This is all easier said than done. Making a practice of quiet our outside noise, examining what’s really going on within us, and give it to God is hard work, but it’s worth it. We may need some counseling because the internal noise is so loud. There is strength in getting counseled. I have done it many times before.
Many of us have never actually endured silence to engage with our souls. We are continuously depleted, exhausted, outraged, and upset because we so fear silence and solitude, of asking, “What’s going on within me? Why am I so mad?” If Jesus is truly your king, then no earthly thing or ruler should ever have that much power over you to where you are emotionally and physically bent out of shape all the time.
And when the chaotic inner noise is quieted, we can replace it with more lovely sounds. We can start to cultivate habits of prayer and Scripture reading that enable us to hear and understand the voice of God more clearly. This might look different for everyone, but I encourage you to be intentional. I like to wake up early, light a candle, and read my Bible, spending time just sitting with God Or after a long day of work, , I will park the car in the driveway, turn the music off, close my eyes, and just sit and listen to myself breathe. Then I pray to let go of whatever is on my mind and ask the Lord to help me to transition from pastoring to loving my family.
Each July, I take off the month to rest, pray, and seek God’s purpose and blessing for Renewal Church of Chicago. Ideally, I’ll go to a lake house or a remote area in nature where my phone, internet, and cable are cut off. Nature can be sobering, quiet, and it’s in those places I have my best times with God. On slow mornings over coffee, my Bible, and a good breakfast, I’ll look out at the water and just sit, with no agenda at all except to be with him.
These are moments where my soul is refreshed, and I find I am able to hear God’s voice more clearly. It’s not a retreat from the world, but it's often a clarification and confirmation of what I am doing, how I am leading, and how I can be of use to God in the world. I believe this is exactly the same exploration that Jesus did when the Lord compelled him to go into the wilderness; in getting away to experience solitude with God, he was prepared to come back to minister to a waiting and watching world.
Practicing silence and solitude isn’t some type of Zen moment just for your own wellbeing. As Henri Nouwen writes, “Compassion is the fruit of solitude.” Jesus tells us this world is not our home, and so merely getting away just to relax belittles the spiritual discipline of silence and solitude. Silence and solitude is fuel for us to walk boldly as God’s ambassadors in the world, reenergized with compassion and ready to be poured out for those that do not yet know the hope the Church has in Jesus. By God’s grace, others will also come to hear his voice.
Derrick Puckett is the Lead Pastor and Church Planter of Renewal Church of Chicago and serves as President of The Chicago Partnership. He and his wife, Kaley, moved to Chicago in 2013 to plant a Gospel centered disciple making multi-ethnic church. Renewal started in 2014 and has been thriving ever since. Derrick has a B.A. from Indiana University and a M.Div. from Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary. Derrick and Kaley have 4 beautiful daughters, Ramiyah, Elyana, Isabelle and Nalah and a new son, DJ.
–Mark 1:12-13, NLT
As a nation and culture, we lead some very noisy lives. We’re distracted by the deafening clamor of our minds, the pulls and responsibilities on the priorities of our hearts, and the endless escape of a dopamine fix promised by an ever-present phone at hand.
Boredom doesn’t exist anymore. Not long ago, making an urgent call in public required a pocketful of change and a pay phone. A missed call might be returned days later. While standing in the grocery line, there was nothing to do but wait, sit in the boredom, or talk to someone around you.
Today, there seems to be no place to simply sit with ourselves in quiet and collect our thoughts. The fabric of silence and solitude has unraveled, eliminating patterns of retreat from the noise and distractions. Is there any place where we are fully present anymore? At home? At work? With friends? With God? Are we even capable of such isolation anymore? At the first quiet moment, we escape to streaming services or social media, review our calendars and to-do lists. We reach for anything to occupy the silence. And when the silence is gone, there is no rest. The incessant noise has left us fatigued but restless, searching for peace and restoration, desperate for silence but afraid to enter into it.
Every escape has a destination, but not every destination is desirable. We can go on vacation and come back home and feel more uneasy and depleted than before we left. But perhaps the refueling we long for will not be found in the next escape, but in the seeking of something far more lifegiving.
What do we even mean when we talk about is silence? There are really two dimensions: external and internal silence. Finding external silence is self-explanatory and relatively simple, but the real work comes in finding internal silence. Often our internal noise is so loud it seems to drown out everything else, including the voice of God, but we can’t simply turn off our emotions, our worries, and our anxieties. To get rid of them, we have to deal with them. We have to face them head on, but that can bring anxieties of its own. We don’t want to deal with the internal noise, even if we know it’s causing a chasm between us and God. We can so fear engaging with the internal voices that we find ourselves numbing it with more external noise. And so the phone once again comes out of the pocket. It makes the moment bearable, but next time the internal noises will be even louder.
This leaves us always wanting more from God. We never feel content and we may begin to listen to voices or seek affirmation from other places. As John Mark Comer writes in The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, “The noise of the modern world makes us deaf to the voice of God, drowning out the one input we most need.”
True silence is silencing both external and internal noise in order to hear what is going on within your soul. It is learning how to sit still and do nothing but breathe.
What noises or voices are you listening to that are drowning out the voice of the One you really need to be hearing? Is it your own voice or the voice of other people in your life? What are the voices talking about? Family matters, work, social media, politics, sex, or heavy expectations? What’s keeping you from silence?
Jesus spent time with people, but he also spent time in silence. Silence is time alone in the quiet with our souls before God. We want to be able to hear our own soul and hear God. It’s in silence we begin to see what’s buried deep within us and it begins to come to the surface. This is where we often try to quiet the silence, but it’s in that hard place that we can ultimately see ourselves, acknowledge who we really are, and experience freedom. It breaks the chains our internal noise had over us.
We have to be intentional about finding silence if we are to develop the practice of solitude. You cannot have solitude without silence. Solitude is when you are alone with God and your own soul, not to be confused with isolation or loneliness. As Richard Foster writes in The Celebration of Discipline, “Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.” When we are in a place of silence and solitude, we are not by ourselves, but instead, we are in communion with God. Solitude unveils the fractures in our soul so that we may turn towards our loving Father and say, “Here I am; this is me,” and experience the true love, grace, and acceptance of God.
This is all easier said than done. Making a practice of quiet our outside noise, examining what’s really going on within us, and give it to God is hard work, but it’s worth it. We may need some counseling because the internal noise is so loud. There is strength in getting counseled. I have done it many times before.
Many of us have never actually endured silence to engage with our souls. We are continuously depleted, exhausted, outraged, and upset because we so fear silence and solitude, of asking, “What’s going on within me? Why am I so mad?” If Jesus is truly your king, then no earthly thing or ruler should ever have that much power over you to where you are emotionally and physically bent out of shape all the time.
And when the chaotic inner noise is quieted, we can replace it with more lovely sounds. We can start to cultivate habits of prayer and Scripture reading that enable us to hear and understand the voice of God more clearly. This might look different for everyone, but I encourage you to be intentional. I like to wake up early, light a candle, and read my Bible, spending time just sitting with God Or after a long day of work, , I will park the car in the driveway, turn the music off, close my eyes, and just sit and listen to myself breathe. Then I pray to let go of whatever is on my mind and ask the Lord to help me to transition from pastoring to loving my family.
Each July, I take off the month to rest, pray, and seek God’s purpose and blessing for Renewal Church of Chicago. Ideally, I’ll go to a lake house or a remote area in nature where my phone, internet, and cable are cut off. Nature can be sobering, quiet, and it’s in those places I have my best times with God. On slow mornings over coffee, my Bible, and a good breakfast, I’ll look out at the water and just sit, with no agenda at all except to be with him.
These are moments where my soul is refreshed, and I find I am able to hear God’s voice more clearly. It’s not a retreat from the world, but it's often a clarification and confirmation of what I am doing, how I am leading, and how I can be of use to God in the world. I believe this is exactly the same exploration that Jesus did when the Lord compelled him to go into the wilderness; in getting away to experience solitude with God, he was prepared to come back to minister to a waiting and watching world.
Practicing silence and solitude isn’t some type of Zen moment just for your own wellbeing. As Henri Nouwen writes, “Compassion is the fruit of solitude.” Jesus tells us this world is not our home, and so merely getting away just to relax belittles the spiritual discipline of silence and solitude. Silence and solitude is fuel for us to walk boldly as God’s ambassadors in the world, reenergized with compassion and ready to be poured out for those that do not yet know the hope the Church has in Jesus. By God’s grace, others will also come to hear his voice.
Derrick Puckett is the Lead Pastor and Church Planter of Renewal Church of Chicago and serves as President of The Chicago Partnership. He and his wife, Kaley, moved to Chicago in 2013 to plant a Gospel centered disciple making multi-ethnic church. Renewal started in 2014 and has been thriving ever since. Derrick has a B.A. from Indiana University and a M.Div. from Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary. Derrick and Kaley have 4 beautiful daughters, Ramiyah, Elyana, Isabelle and Nalah and a new son, DJ.
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