Making an effort to cut out noise.

I spent most of last week, when not on a motorbike (I’m still walking like John Wayne), in silence.

Those who know me would probably say that this is unusual for me, I tend to fill my world with sound and pictures and usually have the radio on in the background even when I haven’t got the TV or the computer or the phone going.

I think it’s because growing up with 10 of us in small house in Honiton meant that noise is comforting and ‘feels like home’.

What I’ve discovered, though, is when I make the effort to cut out the noise, to stop, slow down, still myself, sit and think for a while – usually half an hour at a time – then I find myself listening more. To the world around, to my own thoughts and to what the Bible calls ‘the still, small voice’ of God’s spirit.