Dissent from the Kingdom of Noise

“Music and silence – how I detest them both!…We will make the whole universe a noise in the end…The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end.” Senior demon to junior demon in C.S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters.”

“Be still and know that I am God.”– Psalm 46:10

Isn’t it amazing the stark contrast in the advice given to us in Psalm 46 and the demons’ plan to drown out silence in “The Screwtape Letters”?

I am blessed to live in a house with my amazing wife and five awesome kids. Silence is rare and it is so needed! Sometimes Jill and just demand no talking, nothing at all, just to give our minds a bit of respite from the noise.

If you’ve never read anything written by Timothy Keller, I highly recommend his work, especially “Counterfeit Gods.” He is a great author and from everything I can tell a great man. Jordan Raynor had Keller on his podcast one time and asked him to close with his best advice for those seeking to redeem our time for the glory of God and the good of others. This was his advice:

“When you get to the end of your life, you are going to say, “I should have put way more time into prayer, reading, and solitude.”

I would expect to hear prayer and Bible study from a preacher, but solitude? The world today tells us that solitude and quiet are to be avoided, not sought after. But, seeking solitude is something that the Bible tells us Jesus often did.

Enough of the introduction! You made it through Chapter 2. It is a doozy. If you implemented Chapter 2 of “Redeeming Your Time” you now have a Commitment Tracking System (CTS) and a plan to use it. 

Know that your plan will fail. You will need to revisit and tweak it often. But, if you will commit to the practices outlined in Chapter 2 you will see great results. Now, we get to the fun ways to be more productive, with more peace. These are habits we build on top of the system we created in Chapter 2. 

Chapter 3 is all about dissenting from the “kingdom of noise.” Raynor does a great job of differentiating between hearing God’s Word and listening to his voice. Listening requires silence, stillness, solitude, and reflection. 

Chapter 3 is full of great practices to get more listening time built into your life. Let’s go through them so you can decide which ones to try and, ultimately, which ones to make a permanent part of your life. 

Practice 1 – Let Your Friends Curate Information for You

I used to always believe I needed to be up on the latest news to have a good conversation with someone. I was wrong. People love to talk way more than they like to listen. Being ignorant of the latest news gives you a great opportunity to ask others what they’ve been hearing or reading. They get to talk and you get an update on the world. It’s a win-win!

Practice 2 – Stop Swimming in Infinity Pools

Social media streams are the biggest infinity pool for most these days. Mine was (and sometimes still is) Google News. These resources were built to maximize your time on screen. Stay away from them completely or set a timer anytime you decide to put your toe in the water. I am amazed at how many minutes will click off on my timer before I come up for air. 

Practice 3 – Choose Filtered Content

The goal here is to have as many people as possible pre-consume the information for you to decide if it is worth your time. Books have to go through publishers. Blogs and podcasts do not. Once a book is through a publisher, you can find out what others thought of it via Amazon or other reviewers or you can read a summary online before you spend the time to read it. 

I am trying hard to consume less content and implement more. Implementing what you learn from something you read or listen to takes time. 

Be careful what you spend time consuming. Spend more time implementing what you learn. The benefits come from the implementation.

Practice 4 – Gain Independence from Social Media

Kinda like practice 2. Set limits. Use timers. Social media was designed to steal your time. 

Practice 5 – Parent Your Phone

Do you ever walk by your phone and check it out of boredom when you could be spending that time being present with people you love? I do and it kills me! I already silenced all the notifications so I can only check my messages when I choose to, but I’ll still pick the phone up when I clearly have better things to do. Raynor gives lots of great tips and tricks on how to parent your phone in this chapter. Check it out to see which ones work for you. 

Practice 6 – Get Comfortable with Crevices In Your Day

These are the silence we love to fill in with news, music, podcasts, whatever. Noise is a joy killer and anxiety producer. Try to let more silence into your day when you get in your car, are doing chores, whatever. I love consuming great knowledge from audiobooks and podcasts when I run, do errands, and other stuff where I can multitask, but I have found many benefits of simply sitting in silence and having my head where my body is.

Practice 7 – Take a Walk

Or a run in silence. It might seem hard at first. Too often, silence feels like I am wasting the time when I could be multi-tasking, but if silence is when and how God speaks to me, what is more valuable – the silence or that audiobook?

Practice 8 – Write to Think

I got into writing for the newspaper in September of 2016. I have written an article every week since then. I could not imagine my life without this time to think and process and share what I’ve learned. 

Practice 9 – Put the Quiet Back in Quiet Time

Raynor’s book inspired me to get back into a daily quiet time practice. First, make a quiet time part of your life. Next, put some silence into your quiet time. Not praying. Not reading. Just listen (with pen in hand or keyboard at the ready). 

A lot of these practices may seem way over the top, but if you are looking for more peace and joy in your life please try some of them. They have made a huge impact on my life.

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