The Hum
The electricity was recently cut-off for several days to my community as a way to prevent forest fires when we were faced with wind gusts of up to 109mph. During one of the of these evenings, as I sat with the glow of candles surrounding me, I realized that my home was silent. Completely and utterly silent. There was no underlying hum from the refrigerator, the furnace, and other appliances working throughout my house. The tv wasn’t running and music wasn’t playing.
My home was quiet.
Until this moment, I never realized or thought about the fact that electricity has a sound; a hum that infiltrates the world around us. And each appliance and object that draws this power source emits its own hum however quiet or loud it may be. At any given moment, we could have a multitude of hums adding to the sound waves infiltrating our hearing. But we have become so conditioned to hearing this consistent hum everywhere we go, that we forget it is not natural and adds to the sound constantly stimulating our ears.
Lets take this one step further in that most of us add music, audio books, tv, video games, chatter, etc. to the sound waves entering into our hearing space. With all of these sounds fighting for our attention within our consciousness, is it any wonder that we have difficulty hearing what those around us are saying? And how do we ignore the unimportant from the vitally important when everything we hear bites off a little more of our attention even if we are unaware of it? Without realizing it, this constant hum of the world forces us to continually filter through the cacophony of noise stimulating our minds. We are multitasking sound waves one hundred percent of the time, decreasing our ability to truly hear the voices that matter—those of our loved ones and the still, small voice of our Lord and Savior. As a result, for many of us, the hum of the world has drowned out the voice of Jesus from our consciousness.
It took four days of absolute quietness for me to recognize the lack of noise around me; four days for my consciousness to understand how many sounds it constantly filters; and four days without the hum of the world vying for my attention for me to hear Jesus speaking to me—illustrating how quieting the world around me increases my connection to Him.
Now, it is unrealistic to think that I am going to turn off the electricity to my house just to silence the hum of the world so I can spend time with Jesus; however, I can turn off additional sounds like the TV and music, go into a private space away from distractions to facilitate my communion with the Lord. I can go for a hike or a walk and leave the music at home. I guess I finally understood why this time is referred to as a “quiet time with Jesus.” To fully hear and digest His messages for us, we must create the space and take the time to listen.
The bible references the still small voice of the Lord as a “gentle whisper” in 1 Kings 19:11-12 (NIV), “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ 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. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” Jesus, my friends, is the gentle whisper. David even writes on God’s behalf to “be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, NIV).
Friends, we have become so conditioned with the hum of the world and the noises that constantly vie for our attention, that Jesus’ “gentle whisper” or still small voice with in our lives is drowned out. We must consciously make the choice to quiet the noise and spend time with Jesus—for His whisper should be louder with in our lives than any other hum with in the world. Please designate a moment and space to share a “quiet time with Jesus” today and everyday.