a heart full of noise

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Quotes from Seeking the Face of God by Gary Thomas

Chapter 6 - Cultivating the Quiet: Simplicity

"The sin many of us fall into is not that we shake our fists at God and defy Him to His face; that is the sin of unbelievers. Our sin is that we passively rebel against God, filling our lives with so much noise and busyness that God's voice cannot, or will not, penetrate."

"Cultivating the quiet is a painful experience when we are addicted to noise, excitement, and occupation. Opening the door to spiritual quiet can also open the door to spiritual fear and loneliness. It takes a great amount of courage to face God."

"[Blaise] Pascal believed that many young people live in a fundamentally dishonest existence, pretending they're having a good time while they live in constant terror of the truth of their hearts. Their "lives are all noise, diversions, and thoughts for the future. But take away their diversion and you will see them bored to extinction. Then they feel their nullity without recognizing it...""

[He cites Augustine as saying that adults do the same thing, but often cover their idleness by calling it "business." Ironic - and convicting.]

"Pascal said the boredom that drives us to diversion could be the catalyst that calls us to change -- if only we were not afraid to do the necessary work. But Satan offers us his narcotics* as alternatives..."

"The difficulty of simplicity is that it will, at times (especially in the early stages as we break our addiction to diversion), lead us into soul boredom, gloom, depression, and possibly even to despair... I would be less than honest if I suggested that one day our lives are filled with diversions and the next day we walk hand-in-hand with God in glorious rapture... We who have been drugged by diversions cannot expect to enter the quiet without a struggle. Our souls will roar for diversion, the fix that saves us from God's presence."

"God calls us into the quiet (Isaiah 30:15**), not to chastise us, but to draw us into a deeper communion with Him. If we are to quit hiding from God, we need to know why we hide."

"...alone before God, we stand naked and vulnerable. We won't be able to pretend anymore; before God, we will have the choice to obey or to disobey, but pretending will no longer be an option. If we are miserable, we will have to face our misery. If we are sad, we will have to face our sadness. When we dwell in God's presence we must dwell in truth; we cannot control the outcome."

"...I realized that if I insisted on becoming consumed by every major sporting event or political race, every move of the stock market, or even every worry of parenting, if I let these things seize my heart, I simply could not enter into a true celebration of the Sabbath or the joy of a baptism, or the Lord's Supper, or Christmas and Easter, or any other true and significant celebration."

"I have learned the necessity of "guarding my heart" (Proverbs 4:23***) because my heart does not have an infinite capacity to rejoice or be alarmed. By becoming preoccupied with passing things, I exhaust my heart's ability to care about the things that really do matter."

"Just as someone who is allergic to cats learns the beginning symptoms of a reaction and makes haste to get away, so we often unknowingly begin to learn the sensation of God breaking into our hearts and we rush into some activity or diversion to avoid His presence."

"Simplicity frees us from being tabloid Christians."

"Our instant information age pounds us with up-to-the-second details about many things we simply don't need to know. These incessant bulletins can weigh us down and root our thinking in transitory matters."

"The spiritual life is impossible in a heart full of noise and occupation. God will not fill a heart that has no room."

"I seek simplicity only because God is so great I want to strip away the clutter that keeps me from Him."

*By "narcotics" Thomas refers to all manner of diversions and self-focusing distractions -- TV, computers, sports, shopping, gossip, etc.

**Isaiah 30:15-16 - For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

***Proverbs 4:23 - Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.


Chapter 5 quotes
(You can follow the link trail to prior chapter notes from there.)
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