Noise. Even noise communicates the glory of God.
Whether the noise is an urban landscape, a house filled with children, a hectic factory, a highway during rush hour, a kitchen with clanking pans, a social media thread that unravels, or simply the busyness that fills daily life, there is beauty within the chaos of noise.
If we listen closely, very closely, we will notice not all noise is the same. Due to the physics of sound waves, there are various "colors" of noise: white, gray, green, pink, brown, blue, and violet. Each has unique spectral characteristics.
White noise maintains equal intensity across all audible frequencies, producing a consistent hissing sound, and gray noise also equalizes but is tuned to the human ear to be perceived as more balanced. Green noise accents middle frequencies and sounds like rolling waves or a gentle breeze. Pink noise emphasizes lower frequencies, resulting in a balanced tone akin to rainfall. Brown noise, also known as red noise, further amplifies low frequencies, creating a deep, rumbling effect reminiscent of distant thunder. Conversely, blue noise and violet noise accentuate higher frequencies, yielding sharp, piercing sounds. These distinctions, though technical, can inform our understanding of sound in creation, reflecting the intricate design inherent in the world around us.
Physicists may have discovered and named these categories, but their existence at all points to a creative God. For us, noise often feels like one same category. But when we stop to pay attention, we hear clinks and clangs, crackles and pops, hiss and roar. We notice car horns, laughter, footsteps, wind, chirping, and on and on. God has made all the noise around us, and we are in the middle of creation, as loud as it might be at times. So we needn’t shun noise but can learn instead to let it point us to our creator.
Noise isn’t just outside of us, of course. Some of us have noisy internal landscapes, and God can speak in those as well. The apostle Paul speaks of two opposites that are part of his internal monologue: what he loves and what he hates, both vying for his attention. But despite the internal cacophony, he hears and follows God's voice. We can hear the noise in Romans 7:15–20, reminiscent of radio static between two competing channels. Into and through that noise God speaks to Paul, and Paul is then equipped to serve as a messenger for God.
Like Paul, we face all kinds of noise, and our internal noise is influenced by the external noise that characterizes 21st century life. Many of us daily wade through a constant stream of sound and distraction—bloviation from politicians, debates on social media, bombardment of entertainment, commercial interruptions, and much more. Although the CALM Act of 2010 sought to quiet ads, advertisers maximize audio via compression so ads are as loud as legally possible! It is difficult to unplug or disconnect, especially since our culture accentuates the bold and boisterous. Noise is just not always avoidable.
My life in recent years, in addition to leading worship and teaching classes, has involved caregiving for my wife. Her battle with ovarian cancer has involved many noisy moments— early alarms, barking dogs, ambulance sirens, hungry children, beeping timers, city traffic, squeaky brakes, uncontrolled sobbing, and worst of all, the visceral sounds of my wife's pain.
But what stands out to me, in the midst of life's noise, is the inexpressible, yet incredibly basic, awareness of God's voice in the midst of everything. This is the soothing noise of worship. When noise disturbs us, when we are burdened, we are called in Matthew 11:28 to rest in Christ. He is the Prince of Peace, and in him, we find peace that passes all understanding and that expands into times of work and service. Christ meets us in our labor and in our noise.
Perhaps no one expressed this better than Brother Lawrence over 300 years ago. I picked up his book The Practice of the Presence of God as a college student because it was the shortest book on the required reading list, and that book transformed how I view the world. He writes, "The time of business…does not with me differ from the time of prayer. In the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were on my knees." (“Fourth Conversation,” The Practice of the Presence of God, Project Gutenberg ebook). Taking that posture can transform how we view God and our purpose in life. In short, worship is not about escaping but listening.
Recall the words of the psalmist, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" (Psalm 139:7). The psalmist expresses that we experience God everywhere and always—whether up in the heavens or down in bed, whether near the sun's rising or far away on the opposite horizon, whether in the dark of night or the light of day. And the same principle applies to the physics of sound. We hear God in both the crest and the trough, whether the amplitude is high or low. God is in silence, and God is in noise.
Because of this truth, I’ve found that worshiping better involves listening better. Doctors of various kinds recommend listening to noise to relax, focus, and even to sleep. Perhaps pastors, theologians, church leaders, and congregants should do the same. Rather than blocking out the world entirely, as a Buddhist monk might do, we need to listen to God within our noisy world.
Although God calls us to "be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10), God is not asking us to silence others or our environment. In many cases, that is neither possible nor necessary. In fact, Psalm 46 speaks of how the "Lord of Hosts" speaks in the midst of trembling earthquakes, roaring floods, and raging war, hardly a context of silence. So, when the world refuses to hush, we quiet ourselves to hear God within the noise around us.
Lawrence reminds us that, "once we have established a habit of the practice of the presence of God, …we may simply continue with Him in our commerce of love, persevering in His holy presence with an act of praise, of adoration, or of desire…and in all the ways our spirits can invent" (“Sixth Letter” The Practice of the Presence of God, Project Gutenberg ebook). If that's true, God's presence is not limited to a few minutes of quiet in a day. God is present in serene and clamorous moments alike.
So in all of creation's activity around us, take a moment today to hear God in the midst of the noise, for God is everywhere, even there.