Too much noise!

Do you hate noise? I think that we all do. It keeps me awake, it makes it impossible to concentrate and it gives me a headache.

One of the biggest reasons people move out of the cities and into the suburbs is to escape the noise. But some scientists and researchers are beginning to rethink the premise that only the cities are noisy. This is from the New York Times,

Acoustical engineers have found that suburbia is nearly as noisy as urban centers:

Their findings, delivered on June 8 in Salt Lake City at the 153rd biannual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, indicate that the noise level in the average suburb is approaching the noise level in the average city. “The level of noise in the urban and rural areas we tested remained pretty consistent with the 1970 E.P.A. figures” — about 59 decibels in the city and 43 in the country, Mr. Szymanski said. But in the suburbs, the average ambient noise level was 56 decibels — a whisper less than the average noise level in the average city, and 7 decibels higher than it was in 1970. According to a Census Bureau survey, noise is the #1 "neighborhood complaint," ahead of crime, odors and poor public services.

(HT: The Suburban Christian)

Although, this report is only focused on the sounds that fill the air, I think that there are other "noises" that permeate all around us.

The culture that you and I live in is filled with noise. And yet these noises are more subtle. They don't jar you out of bed in the middle of the night. They don't cause you to cover your ears. They are the noises of busyness, entertainment, pursuit of wealth and pleasure.

These noises distract us. They can anesthetize us to the realities around us.

This Sunday, I am preaching on the second myth that we often buy into, the myth of comfort. Somehow we think that our lives should be pain free. It is a myth that thinks that, as Christians, we shouldn't have any discomfort, loss or grief.

What often happens is that we use the noises around us to buffet and protect ourselves from the pains. We allow our busyness to numb us to the hurts. We distract ourselves with pleasure from movies, the internet and music to drown out the relational brokenness, pain and loss. We allow ourselves to run from one activity to another, so that we don't have the time to think or feel.

C.S. Lewis said that pain and loss are God's megaphone. God uses pain and loss to penetrate through all the noise in order to get our attention and to get hold of our heart.

Pink Floyd performed a song called, "Comfortably Numb". That is often how we choose to pursue living our lives. But rather, God wants to conform and transform us into the image of His Son and He will use whatever means it takes to penetrate the "noise".

This Sunday, we are going to look at pain and loss and how the Gospel gives us real and lasting hope and comfort.