My iPod died \u00a0the other day. \u00a0I was walking out the door for a run only to discover that I couldn’t turn it on. \u00a0The frustration spread from my toes to my head in a matter of seconds because I needed to get out of the house. \u00a0July and August in Texas can be described by a sign I saw on Facebook the other day. \u00a0“The devil called. \u00a0He wants his weather back.” \u00a0 As for me, \u00a0I avoid hell at all costs which is why I had been holed up in my house for weeks. \u00a0 \u00a0It was a nice morning with some cloud cover and I was ready to enjoy my playlist and burn off some calories before Dante’s Inferno reappeared. \u00a0 Alas, \u00a0no music. \u00a0I left the iPod on the counter and headed out anyway thinking I would think, pray and enjoy the scenery.<\/p>\n
I tried to contemplate the deeper issues of my life. \u00a0I tried to pray and listen for God’s voice. \u00a0I tried to appreciate the birds that were enjoying the cooler weather of the morning. \u00a0I tried so many things but my mind was overwhelmed with the sound of the morning. \u00a0The sound of SILENCE. \u00a0 With every step my legs felt like lead and my lungs burned. \u00a0My thoughts were unclear and my feet were cramping. \u00a0Instead of enjoying my normal, easy run I felt like I was on the last mile of a marathon.<\/p>\n
As I walked the last stretch back to the house, I realized that I have grown accustomed to noise. \u00a0 It does something for me that makes life much more comfortable. \u00a0 It distracts me from pain. \u00a0Not only physical pain but all sorts of pain. \u00a0The commotion of life easily overwhelms the quiet thoughts of God and those thoughts have a heavenly purpose. \u00a0God doesn’t ask me to find solitude and quiet so that I can suffer. \u00a0He calls me to a place of stillness so that He can speak into my wounds and bring healing. \u00a0Facing pain means I learn from it and grow through it. \u00a0 If I never realize where I’m in need, \u00a0how can I ask for His help? \u00a0If I don’t find His healing, how can I help those around me? \u00a0If I can’t help those around me, what good is the love that God has placed in my heart?<\/p>\n
If we could \u00a0pull ourselves away from the racket of this world for just a few minutes we might find silence to be much more of a friend than an enemy. \u00a0 We might become acquainted with peace and wisdom at a deeper level. \u00a0We might even begin to understand ourselves and have more love for others if we could just stop and listen to the sound of God’s heart.<\/p>\n
I think I may try another run minus the iPod. \u00a0I have a feeling I’ll get stronger and \u00a0run farther…eventually. \u00a0I won’t be giving up my playlist for good, but there seems to be a few things I can learn running to the sound of silence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My iPod died \u00a0the other day. \u00a0I was walking out the door for a run only to discover that I couldn’t turn it on. \u00a0The frustration spread from my toes to my head in a matter of seconds because I needed to get out of the house. \u00a0July and August in Texas can be described […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[180,189,259,382,396,514,520,544],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-face-to-face","tag-family","tag-healing","tag-music","tag-noise","tag-silence","tag-slow-down","tag-stop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}