Blog:
Hearing God in the Noise - Embracing a new normal.

Posted by Lucy
on 17th November 2022

You could say that returning to India caught me off guard. The noise, the sounds, the smells, the desperate poverty, the constant need, the animals - everywhere!

I think I had forgotten just how comfortable we had it. Even the small things can fully drain your energy.

The things I had come to take for granted like clean running water, your clothes smelling fresh, your children having everything they need to ‘thrive’, the education system and NHS and so many other systems available to all are just something that is not available here.

I am not starting with these points to get sympathy - on the contrary - I say these things because over the past month my perspective has completely shifted. God is reminding me how reliant I had become not on him, but on myself.

That was never His plan.

His plan is that we would turn to him in every situation.

His plan is that we would look to him for patience, strength, energy even.

His plan is that we can rest in Him.

Since arriving in India I do not think I have sat in silence, once. Physical silence just isn’t something you can find here. Even now as I am writing, the household is asleep, yet the trains still rumble by, the fans still whirr, the next door neighbours are washing their pots and of course the animals are making their hunger known outside behind the locked gate.

But what if our world wasn’t meant to be silent. What if hearing from God and communicating with Him was meant to be in the noise. In community. In friendship. In giving. In accepting the invite. In sitting on the roof and watching the world go by.

I am learning to hear God in the noise, and embrace a completely new normal. One that is shaking me to the core.

This new normal means turning up even when you want to hide.

This new normal means letting the tears flow in public as a sign of honour instead of weakness.

This new normal means constantly asking God for help instead of waiting for that beautiful quiet time to open up.

This new normal means stripping myself of my own strength and saying ‘I can’t do this without you’

This new normal means giving God the glory and not myself. 

God, your ways are unimaginable. I give each day, for the rest of my days, to you.

Jesus I declare no matter what life throws at me to follow you and tell others of your incredible love.

Holy Spirit breathe in me a new normal, I ask you to surround me and fill me so I can be a blessing to others.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen

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