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(editor’s note: In light of the previous post, this post may seem somewhat insincere… but that dichotomy is perhaps part of the following “noise”…)

I love Chris Tomlin’s music! It’s great! We have been doing How Great Is Our God for a while now, and a friend recommended his song Unfailing Love, so I am sure we’ll do that one sometime soon. I even e-mailed him today to tell him how much we like (and use) his stuff! Great worship music!

He has a song called The Noise We Make. An album named after the song. And he means the noise of our voices lifted in adoration of our Father.

But a different noise just came to my mind.

For a little while now, perhaps since Christmas, perhaps longer, I have been a bit troubled by the “noise” in my life. Especially in my house.

Some of it is the noise of our messy-ness, caused by too much stuff, played with by too many tiny kids in too many small rooms. 🙂 You can’t really help that.

Some of it is the noise of all of our toys. We have 9 computers in this house. Three are always on, and two more are on for good portions of the day with little boys playing fun educational games in front of them. That’s a lot of computers. Sometimes, that’s a lot of noise.

Some of the noise comes from the half dozen or so “noise makers” in our house. Our main stereo with the iPod, or the portable speakers that can be anywhere in the house. My main computer can be playing iTunes all of the time, while streaming the entire music library to the other wireless computers in the house that can be simultaneously playing entirely different music. That can be a lot of noise.

Some of it comes from the many vintage video game systems I have collected over the past several years. TI-99/4a, the computer from my childhood, over 20 years old. (Closer to 25!) With a collection of some 50 games, and books to program more into it. Add the Nintendo NES system (a CLASSIC game system!!) with 2 dozen more games and a Sega Genesis with a dozen more…. and you have more noise than you can ever actually make…

(I think that made sense…) 🙂

Add on top of that phones on every floor, digital cable TV with a DVR to record and play anything any time you want (you can record TWO things AT ONCE all WHILE WATCHING something else already recorded!?!?!?), a possible 5 TVs with 5 DVD players (including our computers). Add to that about 100 board games and/or card games…

We can make a lot of noise.

And it’s fun! It’s great! I love ALL of that stuff!

But tonight, after all the noise was quiet… I was talking with God, and really wanted to hear from him, and all I could think of was all of the noise we make. All of the stuff that (probably) drowns him out every day.

Relationships only grow through shared life. You can’t expect a friendship to grow stronger if you never hang out. You can’t expect a spouse to grow closer, or invite you in closer, without devoting time and attention to them, and just being interested in them. You won’t win your children’s hearts, you won’t have the influence you want in their lives, if you don’t learn to turn off the noise and singularly focus on them.

We can not hear God over all the noise we make. We can sometimes see bits of him in it. Perhaps gain some knowledge of his past dealings with men, or his Truth revealed to them. But I think we miss him, and likewise, he misses us.

My heart is longing for my Father right now. And I think that’s good. I miss him. I love all the things we have been blessed with. We really do enjoy them together as a family. But ultimately, they are just stuff.

YES, even my apple computers!

(I can’t believe I just said that!!) 🙂

I think it’s getting noisy in here, and it might just be time for the noise to take a break. I want to hear my Father speak to me. I want to know his voice. I want to let my wife and my kids know how special they are through my undivided attention to them. I want to love my friends by just being available.

And I really, truly hope that I am not just making a lot of noise.