Are you a fan of white noise? I had never realized the power of white noise until I tried to fall asleep in a noisy campground one night. I wanted to drift into a deep sleep, but every time I felt critically drowsy there as another holler or conversation that popped up in the campsite next door and aroused me again. The noise was distracting me. I needed a fan or seascape sound in the background to calm my nerves and allow me to zone out. But for Karthic Thallikar the white noise was driving him crazy. It all started one day as he was enjoying a relaxing even stroll. A low, brooding hum, something like a kitchen blender, began to creep into his awareness. It became an annoying background sound for his walks from then on, but the noise didn’t stop there. He soon noticed it intruding into his previously peaceful backyard as well. Was there any peace to be found outside? He started spending more and more of his free time indoors. But he became especially disturbed when he heard the noise vibrating in his ears in his own room in the house. Was he losing his mind? After some investigating, he finally discovered that the noise what coming from the power cells of a nearby data processing plant in town. The deafening noise of those big power cells was seeping into all of the neighborhoods around it and changing their reality without most of the residents even knowing it. The background noise was introducing a new level of background stress in their lives that they weren’t even aware of. It was ruling their lives without them even knowing it. And that thought drove Karthic Thallikar to start campaigning for noise reduction in his hometown of Chandler, Arizona (Bosker).
We read in Matthew 4:12-15: “When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus announced the beginning of a new kingdom in the lives of those he encountered. The kingdom that they had known was a list of dry rules that were fraying their spiritual lives. Jesus was calling them to a new reality of relationship. Leave behind the hypocrisy and dry routines, come and interact with your Maker. Plead with Him, confess to Him, confide in Him, hold tightly to Him, vent, celebrate, converse, mourn, sob, rest, relax, give thanks in His presence. Be His best friend and you’ll know a new life of real righteousness and peace. Praise the Lord! We don’t have to let this world’s attitude rule our lives. We can let a deep bond with Christ rule our lives.
Bosker, Bianca. “Why Everything is Getting Louder.” The Atlantic Magazine. November 2019. 14 October 2019. Online.