Ever feel like you’re drowning in noise.
Not just the sound of traffic or your neighbor’s dog or the 37th autoplay video on Instagram. I’m talking about the kind of noise that sits in your brain even when it’s quiet. The constant scroll, the endless to-do list, the pressure to keep up, to stay informed, to respond right now. We live in a world addicted to input. Every second of silence feels like wasted time, and every unoccupied moment screams to be filled with something, anything, just so we don’t have to sit still.
And if you’ve ever wondered, “Why does God feel so distant?”
Maybe it’s not that He’s silent.
Maybe it’s that we’ve forgotten how to listen.
Distracted Doesn’t Mean Disconnected, But It’s Dangerously Close
We don’t need a theological degree to know that something’s off.
You open your phone to check the weather and somehow 22 minutes later you’re watching a video about penguins ice-skating in slow motion. Or you sit down to breathe, maybe even pray, and your brain jumps straight to that email you forgot to send or the headline that just pinged your smartwatch.
We say we don’t have time for soul care, for reflection, for deeper things. But the truth is that we’re giving our attention to things that don’t even remember our names. And the tradeoff is killing us.
Peace? Gone.
Clarity? Unclear at best.
Spiritual depth? Drowned in noise.
There’s a cost to all this distraction. And it’s not just that we’re tired. It’s that we’re starving. Relationally. Emotionally. Spiritually. Starving!
Stillness Feels Like Rebellion
It almost seems like stillness is weird now. It feels unnatural. Like we’re doing something wrong if we’re not multitasking. But in a world that equates noise with importance and busyness with value, stillness is straight-up rebellious.
And yet, it’s exactly where God works best.
There’s a line from the Bible that says, “And behold, the Lord was not in the wind… not in the earthquake… not in the fire… but in the sound of a low whisper.” (1 Kings 19:11–12)
A whisper. Not a podcast. Not a push notification. Not a viral reel. Not a packed schedule. He was in the whisper.
God doesn’t compete for our attention like everything else. He’s not going to shout over the chaos. He waits until we’re ready to actually listen. And that’s the scary part. It’s scary because most of us never slow down long enough to be still.
The Fix?
It’s not going to be easy. But it will be worth it.
You won’t stumble into stillness accidentally. You have to fight for it. You have to get uncomfortable. You have to turn things off and shut things out and be okay with the fact that it might feel awkward and even a little boring at first. But you also have to believe this:
Stillness isn’t the absence of something. It’s the presence of Someone.
And maybe, just maybe, when the noise dies down and the distractions fade, we’ll find that God’s been whispering all along. Not with judgment. Not with pressure. But with love, grace, clarity, and peace.
You’re not crazy for feeling overwhelmed. You’re not broken for struggling to hear. But don’t ignore the ache inside you that knows something deeper is calling.
This is Part 1 of our series “Is It Me, or Is the World Just Louder Than God?”
Up next: Digital Detox and Soul Repair.
Because let’s be honest, your soul wasn’t made for 24/7 notifications.
And it’s time to get it back.
Source: www.derrickhurst.org