Turning Down the Noise

Job 33:33b “Listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.”

While driving in bad weather or in heavy traffic in unfamiliar cities, my first inclination is to turn down the radio. That act does not help me to see better, but it does allow my senses to focus more acutely on what is happening around me. I pay better attention when the noise is lowered. According to Steven Yentis, a professor at John Hopkins University, an individual’s attention is strictly limited; when attention is given to one modality (listening), it extracts a cost from another modality (vision).

How many times in our spiritual lives do we need to turn down the radio? We allow the noise of the world to invade our spiritual life and become so distracted that we become lost. We take wrong turns; we flounder for direction. What we need to do is to turn down the noise of the world by delving into God’s word on a daily basis, keep our focus on Christ, and then our vision will be following the right direction.