Reading
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8:15-17
Reflection
Sometimes, noise is nice. It’s nice to be able to drown out sounds we don’t want to hear. A retreat center I often visit backs up to a highway, and the white noise machine comes in very handy for drowning out the roadway sounds at night.
Noise can be nice not just for covering external sounds, but for internal ones as well. Noise can cover feelings we’d rather not feel, questions we’d rather not ask, and truths we’d rather not confront. Many of us have gotten so used to noise—whether in the form of TV, music, podcasts, video reels, etc.—that we have lost the ability to be alone with our own thoughts.
While noise can be nice, it can also be detrimental, and in our current context, we seem to have developed a pathological obsession with it. The feelings, questions, and truths we drown in the noise do not go away; they grow, and we require more and more noise to drown them out.
In the midst of so much noise, we need to silence the clamor and come to quiet to hear the truth. Rowan Williams writes, “we need to retain the ability to say to God, ‘Tell me who I am.’ Because I’m not going to settle with what everybody else is telling me—I’m not even going to settle with what I am telling me. I need to hear it from God, the God who tells me.”
Silence can be daunting, because before our mind comes to quiet, often the things we have tried to drown out with noise—the feelings, questions and truths we’ve avoided—show up to fill the newly quiet space. Becoming quiet in order to listen to God can be an uncomfortable experience, especially when the practice is new. Yet it is only when we eliminate the noise that we can hear the voice that speaks the truth of who we are—the Holy Spirit “bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
This is our deepest identity and the source of our value and worth. No matter what others claim about us, no matter what we believe about ourselves, God’s very Spirit tells us that we are God’s children, co-heirs with Christ.
The rest is just noise.
Prayer
For today’s prayer, spend time in silence with God. Even if it’s a new practice, aim for five minutes, although any time with God is good. It often takes the first few minutes simply for our minds to still. Begin your prayer time by praying, “Tell me who I am,” and then listen for the Spirit’s leading. When you find your mind wandering, come back to your intention by praying, “I am your child.” Close your time by praying the Lord’s Prayer.
