Noise

1. sound, esp. of a loud, harsh, or confused kind: deafening noises.
2. a sound of any kind: to hear a noise at the door.
3. loud shouting, outcry, or clamor.
4. a nonharmonious or discordant group of sounds.
5. an electric disturbance in a communications system that interferes with or prevents reception of a signal or of information, as the buzz on a telephone or snow on a television screen.
6. Informal. extraneous, irrelevant, or meaningless facts, information, statistics, etc.: The noise in the report obscured its useful information.
7. Obsolete. rumor or gossip, esp. slander.

Of all the things that I came to discover becoming a father, there one thing that has stuck out out to me more than others. It was the sense of peace on the inside I had from simply taking a break from life and living and loving what G-d has done. It was not during this time but after that I discovered this... living with/in the issues of the empire is a noisy existence.

After a time of peace, going back to deal with the life that I had always considered normal became very frustrating. I began to see quickly how some of the things that I had previously thought impossible, very much were. Whether it is something a simple as not giving your spouse a kiss on the cheek before leaving for work or something a devastating as not spending time with your child, our society's mo seems to create a perfect condition scenario for these things to happen.

We have a Kingdom issue on our hands here. I think we must consider here what it means to pursue the kingdom rather than the empire. Rob Bell uses the illustration of the Hebrews in captivity in Egypt, a literal slave to society's machine, G-d then swoops in to rescue his people to set them free from captivity, and then establishes His law to remind them that at their core they are no longer part of the machine.

G-d's intent for creation never included being so wrapped up in our worlds noise that we forget who He is and why we are.

It was also at this point I realized that a large part of how the christian religion suggests people live is to counteract this phenomenon. Whether it is something as rudimentary as morning devotions, community group, or Sunday service. We seem to be bent on simply staying in touch with our creator and never really coming under the radical transformation that it is to live kingdom minded.

So, what is my practical point? As always, be transformed by the gospel of Jesus life, and in doing so living kingdom minded. We will never accomplish the life or mission that G-d has set for us if we continue to treat our relation ship with Him as merely another ball we are juggling in the air along with work, kids, spouse, etc..

g&p