IS YOUR LIFE TOO NOISY?

"Just as the eye converts photons into electrical signals that can be
'seen' by the brain, so the ear converts sound waves into electric
signals that can be 'heard' by the brain -- no less a miracle. In some
ways the ear actually outperforms the eye. It can hear over an even
wider range of sound intensity (one trillion times) than the range of
light intensity over which the eye can see (ten billion times).

The eardrum has the same thickness as a piece of paper and is
exquisitely sensitive to any vibration. It can vibrate as slowly as
twenty times per second. Even sound waves that move the eardrum less
than the diameter of a hydrogen molecule can be perceived by the brain
as a sound. It is this sensitivity that makes it possible to hear a
cricket chirping one-half mile away on a still night.

The sensitivity of the hearing mechanism is very impressive. The reason
'sound' happens at all has everything to do with the sensitivity of the
equipment God has designed for us and almost nothing to do with the
energy of the sound wave itself. A noise loud enough to pain the ear,
for example, measures a mere 0.01 watt of energy.

The sound energy generated by our speaking is likewise negligible. A
person could 'talk continuously for hundred years and still not produce
the sound energy equivalent to the heat energy needed to bring a cup of
water to the boil.' That is the extraordinary sensitivity of the ear
itse
lf that permits hearing.

The ear has a million moving parts and is yet another evidence of the
microprecision of God. Yet as wish so much of life, the creature abuses
the gift. The ear is increasingly assaulted by an epidemic of noise and
commotion. Noise is to the ear what excessively bright lights are to the
eyes.

Noise is toxic to the sensitive cells of the ear, the cardio-vascular
and nervous systems, and our mental and spiritual health. 'Noise usually
drowns out the voice of God,' maintains Gordon MacDonald. 'Few of us can
fully appreciate the terrible conspiracy of noise there is about us,
noise that denies us the silence and solitude we need for this
cultivation of the inner garden.'

Realizing that EXCESSIVE noise leads to stress, seek to diminish the
ambient noise in your life. 'Regular times of quiet are absolutely
necessary,' wrote Dietrich Bonhoffer. 'After a time of quiet we meet
others in a different and a fresh way,' Adds theologian John Stott:
'I've learned the necessity of stepping back, looking where I was going,
and having a monthly quiet day to be drawn up into the mind of God.'"
from A MINUTE OF MARGIN -- RESTORING BALANCE TO BUSY LIVES by Richard A.
Swenson and published by our good friends at NavPress.