Be Still

 Good morning, and welcome to this Thursday Thought.

We had occasion to do a day trip yesterday to a rural part of the state.  By rural, I am referring to a place with very few people, lots of livestock, and not much else.  The town we visited had no more than about 100 residents.  It was located in the middle of prairie and farm land.  A highway that didn’t have a lot of traffic ran on one side of it, and a railroad ran beside the highway.

We spent several hours there on business for the church.  During that time, there was a time when we had nothing to do and were waiting on someone else.  I went outside then and noticed a few birds calling.  I didn’t recognize one or two of them, so took out my phone and started my Merlin bird app.  If you aren’t familiar with Merlin, it is an app that listens to your environment and identifies birds by the sounds of their calls.  It seems to be very accurate, and is extremely sensitive to the most distant and soft calls.

The app recognized fourteen different species of bird the first time I used it.  Several minutes later I tried it again.  It recognized sixteen different species.  Although there was considerable overlap on species between the two recordings, there were combined twenty distinct species of birds recognized by Merlin, and sometimes I actually saw them and recognized them.  This in a place far from any larger city or even town, and a sort of oasis in the prairies of southern Kansas red hills.

Beyond that, however, I noticed something else.  Other than the calling of the birds and the occasional human noise, there was a lot of nothing…quiet.  A train went through one time, breaking the silence, and once in awhile someone traveled the highway about a quarter mile away.  But other than the occasional shriek of a couple of kids who were playing a few blocks away, there was nothing.

We live in Wichita.  It seems that no matter where one is in the city, there is constant noise of some kind.  Sometimes it’s a plane overhead.  Sometimes a siren.  Traffic is everywhere.  There may be a train off in the distance.  The sounds of construction are often mixed in with other noises.

Even indoors, sounds of traffic, aircraft, and other noises filter in through walls and windows.  Someone has a loud muffler.  Someone else is riding a cycle or four-wheeler.  A helicopter goes overhead.  Sirens penetrate even well-insulated walls.  And at times, all of these various sound kind of gel together into a low-pitched, almost imperceptible rumble or roar that just keeps on going.  It never stops.  It never ends.  It never becomes truly quiet like what I heard yesterday in the rural area where we were.

One of the quietest places I regularly visit is our back yard patio.  Our back yard abuts the back side of Pawnee Prairie Park, so there are no neighbors behind us.  We are about a mile from busy Kellogg, and a good distance from Maize Road.  When the weather is right and the wind is cooperative, it is pretty much quiet back there.  I hear plenty of birds, along with the sounds of the park…trees rustling, people walking the paths, and so on.  But there often is, even there, that low-pitched, almost imperceptible rumble of a mish-mash of noises and sounds.  And, of course, Eisenhower airport isn’t far away, so there is often the sound of something taking off or landing.

Noise pollution is a real thing that has real effects on humans, animals, and the environment in general.  It is known that with humans, noise pollution can cause cardiovascular issues as well as mental health issues and other problems such as lack of sleep.  Animal behavior is often altered by noise, and the environment in general can be affected by noise…even under water and in the oceans.  Do your own research if you have an interest.

And, what tends to complicate things for us is that we humans have become somewhat addicted to noise.  We have to have the earbuds in, the radio on, or the TV going in the background.  It seems that music has to be played while we’re on hold.  Offices, restaurants and businesses have some kind of music going on speakers in the ceilings.  Being in a truly silent place tends to make us nervous and unsettled.

I have to wonder if at least part of the tendency to want noise is that noise tends to keep us distracted from thinking.  Being alone in our thoughts.  Pondering the meaning of things.  Digging deeper into ourselves.  Considering things bigger than we are…who are we…why are we here…where are we going.  Many people don’t want to go there…they’d much prefer to not have to think about such weighty things.  Because when those topics come up, invariably, life, death, the afterlife, God, and one’s own shortcomings are part of those thoughts.  And that makes us uncomfortable, nervous, and even anxious.

Maybe we NEED to, as Scripture says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  Other translations say, “Stop striving.”  “Desist.”  “Calm down.”  “Let be.”  The idea is to deeply ponder the Truth that is God.