What's With All The Noise?

Okay, we've finalized this move to Augusta. Lynn and I both came here knowing that we were entering into a season of "tabernacling" which would involve quiet, stillness, just listening to God and coming to places of deeper intimacy with Him and deeper understanding of Him.

I place a high value on quiet. I hear and experience God the clearest when I am in places of stillness, solitude, and simplicity. Now that we're settling in here I'm finding, with dismay, that we are absolutely surrounded by noise.

The guy who works for me is an incredibly loud person. He is constantly yelling across the hall to me, shattering the peaceful, quiet environment that I'm trying to preserve in my office. When we are sitting together in the same room or in a vehicle his voice is so loud that my ears literally hurt when he talks.

Our apartment is but a few yards away from Interstate 20. All night, the sound of interstate traffic roars outside my window. We have moved into a building full of families with children who have no concern for their neighbors, constantly yelling and running up and down the breezeway right outside of our door. The air condition is incredibly loud. The fan in the bathroom is ridiculously loud. Why am I suddenly surrounded by noise in this time that I so need quiet and stillness?

Lynn and I decided to spend the evening together at Barnes & Noble reading and talking; a place that is typically quiet with soft music and hushed conversations. Tonight, we were surrounded in all directions by loud study groups reading and debating their homework assignments. I couldn't even enjoy a quiet evening of coffee and reading with Lynn.

I'm assuming that this is all part of God's new work in our lives, but it sure seems counter-productive to what I thought we would be experiencing in our time of growing closer to Him.

I've decided that I'm going to have to get up at 5:00 am every morning so I can be at the local Starbucks at 6:00 when they open. At this early hour I'm hoping I'll find the quiet that I need to do the reading and writing that I'm so desperate to do.
I've faithfully gone to Starbucks every morning since moving here and have gotten to know some of the baristas on a first-name basis. I've always just gotten my coffee and left for work. I'm looking forward to actually spending an hour or two there with them to maybe get to know them as friends.

Tomorrow morning will be my first morning with such an early start. We'll see how it goes. This means that I'll be needing to head off to bed in about 15 minutes. So...that's all the writing for tonight!