Listen with your Eyes

 

I’m going to show my age here, and maybe some can relate to what I’m about to say, but if not, then come along for the ride anyway and let’s see what we can learn from this thought.

Listening requires quiet.

Have you ever found yourself, driving to a new area, perhaps looking for that little coffee shop you want to try out, or possibly trying to find the street number of a house you’ve never been to before. Windows down, music playing over the speakers and instinctively, you reach for the volume dial, turning the music down to a quiet hum, or off completely, because you need to see!

You turn the music off because you need to see where you’re going. You hush those in the car, “Be quiet! I can’t see!”

This happens to me on the regular. Just ask my daughters. If we are driving into the city, in a more heavily trafficked area, or manoeuvring into a tricky parking space, I need quiet.

Logically, it makes absolutely no sense! You see with your eyes! NOT your ears!

Our brains have limited processing powers. When loud sounds, or complex music demand our attention, our brains divert resources away from our visual cortex to focus on the noise, making it harder to concentrate on complex visual tasks, like parking or finding our way in a new area.

Silence helps the brain thrive by allowing it to focus on processing and regulating information more effectively. So, there is a science behind my need for quiet at times, it’s not just old age.

It is true that what you hear, affects what you see. Too much noise clouds your focus.

One speaker said it like this, “Noise doesn’t just distract your ears, it disrupts your vision.”

What we listen to affects how we see.

Let’s bring this thought home.

If you can’t hear God, you also can’t see where he is leading you. When there is too much noise in your mind and in the environment around you, it’s harder to ‘see’ God.

We need quiet.

The concept of God’s presence in the quiet is a theme found all throughout the Bible. The theme is woven into the very fabric of Scripture, and it illustrates clearly how God often reveals himself not in the chaos and noise, but in the quiet moments of life.

One of the most well-known examples of God’s presence in the quiet is found in the story of Elijah on Mount Horeb. (1 Kings 19) After he runs from Jezebel, he experiences some crazy things. We see him deal with a powerful wind, an earthquake, and a fire. But God was not in those things, all though he caused them. His presence wasn’t in the chaos; it was in the stillness. In the still, small, voice.

In Psalm 46:10 the concept is reinforced with the command to “Be still and know that I am God”. This verse calls for us to cease striving and focus on God’s sovereignty. It suggests a quietness that is needed in experiencing God’s presence.

I won’t go into the history of having a ‘quiet time’ or where and when the phrase was coined, but we do know and Scripture backs it up, that setting aside time to spend with God is of utmost importance, whatever you like to call it.  Even the Lord Jesus saw it as important, withdrawing to solitary places for communion and prayer with his Father. (Mark 1:35)

The primary purpose of having time with God is to deepen our relationship with him and to learn from him, drawing close through prayer, reading of the Scripture, and meditating on it.

So, in order to see God more clearly, to learn of his character, we need quiet. We need times of quiet. We might listen with our ears and see with our eyes, but we need the world to shush, so that we can see.

Be quiet, I can’t see!

In a world so filled with constant noise and activity, this call to stillness and seeking God’s presence in the quiet is both countercultural and also deeply transformative. It invites us as believers to step away from our busyness and the things that distract us and find strength in the stillness.

It’s hard to hear God speak when we are letting the world shout in our ears. The devil screams in our busyness but God speaks in the stillness.

What we hear, affects what we see. And if we are letting the noise of the world keep our ears busy, we will become blind to what God has for us. It won’t just distract our ears, it will cloud our vision.

So yes, I will continue to turn the music down when I need to focus and I will most likely still be ridiculed by the younger generation for this ‘old age’ habit, but I will also intentionally practice sitting quiet before the Lord so that I can see better.

Listen with your eyes and see what you can see!