Chatter

The Lord is in His Holy Temple; let all the earth be silent before Him. Habakkuk 2:20

Chatter

One of the things I always remember from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis is when the senior devil tells the story of how he almost lost a “patient”.  The “patient”, according to the senior devil was an atheist.  One day while this atheist was reading in the British Museum the senior devil observed that the thoughts of the atheist were straying from those the devil wanted him to have, perhaps leaning toward believing in the Creator God.  The senior devil at once sprung into action so as not to see twenty years’ worth of his grooming the atheist go awry.  The senior devil did not try to use a rational approach to make the mans mind come back to the thinking of an atheist.  He instead chose to use a tactic that was so ordinary the man would not think that he was being manipulated.  The senior devil introduced the thought of hunger into the unsuspecting man’s mind which in turn made the man leave the museum to get some lunch.  As soon as the atheist left the museum and stepped out onto the sidewalk he was distracted by a newsboy shouting the headlines from the newspaper.  Along with the newsboy shouting Lewis tells us that there were other noises such as a bus going by.  The senior devil knew if he could just get the man to step out into the street then he, the devil, would win.  The chatter of the world kept the man from thinking about what he had been reading that might have turned him toward Christianity.

How often are we distracted by the noises of today?  It seems that we have an abundance of things to take our attention away from the reason we were created.  We have Facebook, Twitter, television, endless streaming services and on and on.  How much screen time have you used lately?  If we would only view the world as if Screwtape, the senior devil, was talking to us would we change our viewing habits?  Are we being tricked into watching our favorite news channel so that we can hear the current chatter of the day?  What would happen if we kept silent for 5 minutes a day?  Would we grow closer to God?  You be the judge.

The prophet Habakkuk was speaking to the people of God in a time when the world was in much turmoil.  The northern kingdom had been destroyed and the Babylonians were threatening to conquer Judah.  Instead of going to lunch as the atheist did Habakkuk stayed in the library and had a conversation with God.  Regardless of the circumstances Habakkuk chose to rejoice in the Lord.  I chose the following version of the hymn The Lord is in His Holy Temple because of the lack of instruments.  Take a few minutes out of your busy day and be silent before Him.