Life is loud, people are loud, TV is loud, music is loud, the walls echo, and silence only comes in your sleep and even then it is interrupted; click-clack-slam, twenty-two times. When i was locked in a cell one would think that it would be solitary, lonely, quiet, none of those things are wholly true. Perhaps solitary for a moment but when crammed two to a single-person cell, not so much. Lonely, only in the darkness of thought. Quiet, only in your dreams. It did however, give way to thought and an increasing desire to listen to Elohim, through the noise.

Even now as i sit and think and write in the hall, voices echo, doors slam . . . knock-knock “house cleaning,” over and over. The highway is abuzz with the constant flow of traffic. Sirens in the distance reveal drama unfolding somewhere for someone, only the participants know for certain, to what extent.

Everyday, i fight through the noise of echoing voices, bouncing off the brick walls. Often those voices yelling in anger, frustration, even madness. It takes a great deal of concentration to focus on what i am reading. To quiet my mind, and my ears, and of course my thought in order to focus on listening to the Word as i read from the pages of Scripture.

Reminding myself of passages like Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am Elohim. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” As well as reminding myself that although i am here in the world, this present moment is not my identity; “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 17:18-19) And although survival instincts kick in when life is thrown at me, i need the reminder, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of Elohim, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

On the day i penned most of what is above i was grappling with John 5. In particular, John 5:6-7; “…Do you want to be healed?” Do i? Do you? As the world distracts, as it pulls, as it turns, as it stirs; “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” The thoughts swirl around in my head, my heart turns with anxiety, the world becomes darkened, the words echo in the hollows of my soul, “Do you want to be healed?” Do i? Do you?

Be not conformed to this world. We are new creations, the old is gone. Let the past go, strain forward for what lies ahead in Yahoshua Messiah. Focus on things above, those things that are true, and lovely, and righteous.

“In all circumstances take up the shield of FAITH, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Ephesians 6:16

Focus through the noise.

You are loved,
cj