It’s important for us, once in a while, to escape the “noise”. We live in a noisy culture, TV’s, radios, car horns, phones, MP3s, constant talking…we’re barraged with continuous sound. In order to go deeper with God, we have to have some breaks from the noise. Thomas Keating, “Unless the noise stops on occasion, we do not have a chance at experiencing the sacrament of spiritual depth.”
2 comments:
I was thinking about this this morning on the train - definitely not a noise-free zone. I do alot of my reading on the train, including our daily Bible readings. I can usually concentrate on the train because all the "noise" becomes just a hum in the background. While I would love to escape noise completely, and can on occasion do that at home, I think for the most part I end up settling for the white noise that I can ignore. Sometimes I just have to go into myself to find the silence. I have no idea if that makes sense.
My problem with trying to concentrate on just prayer or time with God is not so much of a noise or interruption issues as a mind wandering issue. That I definitely need to work on.
Yeah, Mary, I think I know what you mean by tuning out the noise. I do some of my reading and writing at Panera Bread and it can be fairly noisy there, but sometimes I don't notice it. Like you said, it somehow becomes a hum in the background.
And I can DEFINITELY relate with the issue of the mind wandering. I've read wise people who say: don't worry about that or "fight" it. When you notice the mind wandering just gently bring it back again. It's a discipline. But like most disciplines it is easier said than done.
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