Tune out the noise
that you also aspire to lead a quiet life 1 Thessalonians 4:11
Aspire in Hebrew is philotimeomai, which means “to be ambitious.” According to the Bible, the most honorable ambition is not worldly success or popularity, but to live a quiet life. This biblical ambition is so different from world values and showy cultures which promote outspoken and loud personalities. In the age of social media, we find ourselves in a noisy world, flooded with overwhelming content and people's stories. Quietness or living a quiet life seems to be underrated.
Where do the noises come from? Every individual faces different distractions and battles that are difficult to sum up. Generally, I categorize noises related to people and relationships into two types: external noise and internal noise.
External noise refers to conflict, strife, gossip, including online criticism, or to have some drama between people. There is always drama in life, such as Daniel's excellent spirit that invoked jealousy among his peers to throw him into the Lion's den. Daniel attracted drama even when he was minding his own business. Yet, Daniel learned how to respond to external noise by keeping a Kingdom-focus, rather than haters' focus. Our response to external noise requires Godly wisdom, vigilance, and living peaceably with others without vindicating ourselves.
Internal noises may not be that evident, but when we audit our thought process, we may find some people always come to our minds, like secretly comparing with them, being unable to be happy for others, finding fault with others and constantly thinking to “fix” them or simply being nosy and obsessed with other people's lives on social media. As a result, we waste so much time and energy thinking about others' lives, without adding value to our own. In contrast, we can spend that time building ourselves and focusing on God's purposes.
Therefore, to live a quiet life does not mean having a quiet personality; it is all about our thinking and heart towards ourselves and others. As we identify with the noises in our lives, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us reduce them. Additionally, we can exercise our choices to tune out the noise. This includes stopping gossiping, striving with others, thinking envious thoughts, or asking God for help in forgiving and releasing someone in our thought life.
Let's tune out the noise and live in peace, with less striving in relationships, and experience the freedom that comes with living a quiet life.
Blessing prayer: Bless us with a peaceful and quiet life in which we are at peace with God, at peace with ourselves and with others, and we can focus on God instead of those distracting noises. In Jesus’ name, Amen
