What he seems to have meant was that our waking hours are spent in continuous conversation or with the radio or TV on, often loud. We are uncomfortable with silence. Even our time at church is filled with words and singing. The constant movement in our heads is like the bustle of Musika where people are constantly going to and fro in pursuit of their business
Yet it is those gaps in our lives that are filled only with the sound of the wind in the trees or the birds in song that give us spaces to reflect. In towns and cities these moments have to be actively sought as they are not just given to us as they are to those in quiet places in the northern suburbs or our rural areas.
If we do reflect we begin to see our life in context. We see our difficulties in relationships in another way. We see our challenges in work and politics in another light. If we allow ourselves to let what is deep in our consciousness to surface we taste freedom.
If we say ‘be still’ (Mark 4:39) to the superficial sounds and clutter in our minds, the constant chatter of the radio and the stream of gossip in our papers, it can happen that liberating thoughts come to the surface.
Do I have to live the way I do? Do I have to continue to nurse this grudge and keep this resentment? Do I have to see others as ‘the enemy’ just because they do not think as I do, or belong to the same party as I do? Why do I allow myself to be bound by what others tell me to think or tell me to do? Am I not an individual with freedom to choose? Can I not make up my own mind? Why have I allowed myself to be caught in this web where I constantly have to live up to what others think? I say what they want me to say and do what they want. Why?
Could I too not hear the words ‘set her free’(John 11:44)? If we could give ourselves the time to be quiet and to enter into ourselves and discover our true selves, we might be astonished at what we find. And if we go further and ask the Spirit of God to guide us on this journey inwards we will discover freedom.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis