It was a remarkable experience and caught me off guard a bit. Such a simple concept, yet perplexing at the same time. We were walking through the Van Gogh exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and came to a room with a bunch of pedestals with encased handwritten notes between Van Gogh, his brother, and a friend. The handwriting on these notes was beautiful but impossible to read as it was very small, in cursive...oh, and in French, so there was that.
As you walked up to each display, a voice from above, just loud enough for you to hear, would begin narrating the letter. So subtly, it was almost inside your head, and if you took a half a step in any direction, nothing. And while there must have been 20 of these displays in the small room, all playing audio to someone, it was completely silent. It was a rare experience where the only sound was the specific voice intended for the moment. Nothing else. Real clarity.
"But I am deaf to all their threats. I am silent before them as one who cannot speak. I choose to hear nothing, and I make no reply. For I am waiting for you, O Lord. You must answer for me, O Lord my God." (Psalm 38:13-15)
Like all of us, King David had a lot of noise in his life. One pass through the book of Psalms will reveal noise from his rivals, his doubters, his friends, the world around him, and the most destructive, the voice inside his head. Here he chooses not to take the bait and waits for the voice above to provide the response.
What are you choosing to hear?
There's no shortage of voices being thrown at you in any given moment. There are opinions, facts, lies, doubts, anxieties, and circumstances all shaken together in one loud, audible cocktail for you to decipher. Just a lot of noise to dig through in order to find the music.
You can choose to hear everything that's wrong and live in doubt, or the things that are right and build with confidence from there. You can hear the surface frustrations, insults, and attacks, offering your own counterattack, or hear the heart behind them and offer help, empathy, or no response at all (don’t let other people’s anxiety compel you to join them). You can choose to hear the devil in the dark of your own mind or the subtle voice of light that says, "Not today, satan".
Filter out the noise today and listen for the subtle voice from above trying to communicate a specific message intended just for you. Don't get sucked into the vortex of negativity and wind up spinning with confusion or paralyzed altogether. Seek the music behind the noise and operate with clarity from there. You may have to stand for a moment staring at something you just don’t understand, but be patient, the voice from above will come when your own voice gives it a chance.