Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
During the course of any given day, we are inundated with sounds and noises. Our hearing system connects us to the soundscape of our environment and provides us with the tools to identify and interpret acoustic cues. Our brain then catalogs those sound patterns, allowing us recognize and process sounds in the future, both familiar and unfamiliar ones.
For many of us, there is an incessant need for constant noise. That noise helps us feel safe, because in our silence we are sometimes left to address and deal with our thoughts, thoughts that often scare us. Silence often forces us to deal with the soundtrack in our souls, a soundtrack that plays and replays worries, fears, failures, all the things that keep us up at night. It is in the silence that we most often find the rest and relaxation that our body and soul truly need. And it is in that silence that we also frequently can hear the “voice” of God.
In my opinion, one of the toughest things in our noisy world is to create enough space and silence so as to hear God’s “still, small voice”. But if we are to follow Jesus in a serious life-changing way, we must find regular time to be quiet and listen. Psalm 46:10 tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
Building this silence discipline into our lives requires work. It begins with a desire to carve out space. It requires giving up something, desiring to turn off the noise, and find stillness, find quietness, find stillness.
Timothy Leary, the Harvard clinical psychologist, and of hippie fame, encouraged young people in the Sixties to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” His countercultural phrase encouraged the usage of psychedelic drugs to find true consciousness. While that is certainly not my advice, I do think that if we “turn on” a sensitivity to God and His presence, if we “tune in” by listening, and if we regularly “drop out” of the noise around us, we will “find” God and be better able to hear, and be changed by, His “still, small voice.”
We find a reference to God’s still small voice, a gentle whisper, in 1 Kings 19:12. Elijah had just been victorious over all the prophets of Baal. He heard that Jezebel, the wife of king Ahab, wanted to kill him. So, Elijah ran into the wilderness to hide. God sent an angel with food and water, telling Elijah to go to Mount Horeb and wait. In that cave, Elijah voices his displeasure that all God’s prophets had been killed by Jezebel, all except him. God instructed Elijah to stand on the mountain and wait for His (God) presence. Elijah was likely expecting God’s to show up in a loud and powerful way. Yet, wind, an earthquake, and fire came and went, and no God. It is after those had passed that God spoke to Elijah, in a still, small voice. To read this story, click here.
It is important to note that God is not confined to speaking in a still small voice. He speaks to us in many ways. God spoke to Job out of a whirlwind (Job 38:1). In Psalm 104:7, God’s voice sounded like thunder. To Moses, God appeared as fire coming from a bush (Exodus 3:2). God is not limited to a single method of communicating with us. Regardless of how He chooses to speak, it is of utmost importance that we hear and recognize His voice. And at least for me, I am best suited to hear God when I carve out time and space, eliminating as many distractions as I can.
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.” Psalm 62:5
“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.” Job 6:24
So, take a page from the hippie playbook – turn on, tune in, drop out – and listen for God.
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