Honestly before today I never knew that the clock in our living room ticked. I mean, it actually ticks quite loudly! I have sat staring at it now for 2 whole minutes wondering why I had never noticed it before, wondering why I had never heard it-especially as it is so very loud.
Apart from the clock the house is relatively quiet. I decided not to put the television on for a change. I really haven’t been doing much for the past hour, other than staring at my phone and thinking. ( Yes, I have that luxury!)
The silence seems to have unveiled a lot of hidden noises I wouldn’t have otherwise heard. It seems the lights make a humming noise and I think I can hear the fridge humming too. I can hear the low battery warning chirp from one of the smoke alarms (I hope that just started this evening!). Other sounds include that of the occasional car passing by in the distance. But the clock sounds the loudest of them all…
And yet in the midst of everyday life, my usual busy schedule and the usual happenings in our home, the clocks loud ticking is masked, hidden, obscured, not noticed, ignored perhaps? Drowned, overlooked, forgotten …permit me to even say. …Non existent …and yet it does exist.
For me to hear it I had to stop everything. I wasnt looking for the sound of the clock. I wasn’t consciously searching for it. Its sound jumped out at me through the unexpected , self imposed silence . It has been there all along ticking loudly away amongst all my noise. It has been there all along waiting for me to sit back. Waiting for me not to be too busy to notice it, waiting for me not to be too engaged in never ending conversations , waiting for me not to be on the phone or watching television or scurrying about or pottering around, waiting for me to be quiet – so that it could present itself to be picked up upon.
I wonder how many things in our lives are calling out to be heard but have their sound drenched by our ‘busyness’. I wonder how many times God has tried to get our attention and as loud as it is that He calls we still can’t hear.
I wonder how many times our loved ones are not heard, how many people cry out to us for help but their sounds are drenched. I wonder how loud we may be crying out to ourselves and yet we ignore.
Sit back quietly and listen for a while.
She had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Lord’s feet and was continually listening to His teaching. But Martha was very busy and distracted with all of her serving responsibilities; and she approached Him and said, “Lord, is it of no concern to You that my sister has left me to do the serving alone? Tell her to help me and do her part.” But the Lord replied to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered and anxious about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part [that which is to her advantage], which will not be taken away from her.”
LUKE10:39-42 AMP
