TD Jakes - How to Live In The Noise
I got all caught up in this noise, and the noise drew my attention—the loudness of the scene. Let me set it up a little bit: the loudness of the scene between the disciples screaming «Hosanna» and later the enemies screaming «Crucify!» The doubting of the Pharisees doubting him, and Jesus had to function amidst all that noise. These are noisy times we’re living in right now.
Constant trauma is coming through in ways that our parents and grandparents never had to deal with before. We’re receiving it through the media, 24-hour news cycles, social media, and politics, like I’ve never seen in my life. We got it coming through the pandemic. We’ve lost normalcy. We’ve got racial tensions and the rolling back of our rights to vote in this country. It’s so loud right now that it’s deafening.
Add all of the turbulence on the outside to your own personal noise—the noise in your family. I know you don’t have any noise in your family; pray for me. Yeah, but sometimes my family gets noisy. You know there’s always something going on. You’ve got the noise in your family, the noise in your finances, the noise at your job. I don’t care what you do; there’s always somebody you work with who doesn’t like you. You’ve got the noise of your job, the pressure of deadlines, things to do, bills to be paid, taxes to come.
Have you had your teeth cleaned? When was the last time you went to the podiatrist? You haven’t had anybody do anything with your scalp or your skin, and you’re standing in the middle of so much noise. You live in it; you drive in it. You walk in it. You get in your car and hit the traffic, where they’re honking and pushing and shoving. You turn on your phone, and there’s somebody you don’t even know on Instagram calling you out about something you don’t even understand. And you have to live in the noise.
It isn’t just the decay of the noise itself—how loud, how boisterous it is. It also goes far beyond that; it is the constant living under the threat that takes away our peace. Peace has become invaluable. When I was young, I wanted joy. We danced all night long. They put us in the car, and we were still dancing and shouting. Now, y’all don’t know anything about that, but in an old sanctified church, we would shout and shout, and then we just had joy. But as I got older, I appreciate joy; but, Lord, can I have a little peace?
Oh, if you give me a little peace, I don’t have to dance all night. Now, I just want to be able to sleep all night. Oh, y’all are not going to talk to me. We’ve lost the sense of peace, the sense of contentment, the sense of well-being, and the feeling of safety. Looking over your shoulder in the grocery store, you can’t go to a theater without watching everybody. In the airport, you’re looking for a strange bag dropped in a strange place. You’re scared of everybody, living constantly under the threat of not knowing what’s going to happen. It’s taking away our peace.
We don’t like to admit it, but it’s taking away our peace. We have to take something to go to sleep; we have to take something to keep us up during the day. About two o’clock, you almost go into a coma because you didn’t get rest all night. At about two o’clock, there you are, just stumbling all over the place, so you’ve got to get something going for the sake of coffee, trying to keep awake.
It’s taking away our peace; our contentment, our feeling of safety has brought us to a place of longing for the quietness of nothingness. Right then, the quietness of nothingness. Young people, don’t be in such a hurry to make something happen. I understand your energy, your passion, and your drive to make something happen. But after a while, you’re going to have so much happening that you’re going to wish for a little of the quietness of nothingness—some peace. You’ve got noise in your head that has nothing to do with your family.
Nothing to do with your bills, nothing to do with your debt, nothing to do with your deadlines, your responsibility. Nothing to do with the news, nothing to do with your neighbors, nothing to do with the brain, the noise in your head. You know you could have done this; you know you should have done that. You know you’re not this, you’re not, you’re not adequate about this. You don’t do this, or you don’t do that well. And then you’re never going to get where you’re trying; you’re never going to be. You’ve got all that noise in your head. It’s loud, so loud that even when you lay down at night, science is teaching us that your mind is racing while your body has stopped.
You wake up as tired as you were when you went to bed because you went to sleep, but you never got rest, because your head is still spinning at 90 miles an hour, and I’m wondering how you can stand the noise of being you. You don’t have to be famous or rich or well-known or anything. Everybody in here has some noise; everybody. I’m going to say that again because I want to drive out that spirit of hypocrisy. Everybody in here has some noise—some noise you want to shut down. Some phone calls that when you get them and you see who it is, you act like you didn’t hear it, right? Because you don’t need any more noise.
I hate to confess, neighbor, but sometimes I see who’s calling, and I don’t answer because I don’t need any more noise. I’ve got my own noise I’m trying to deal with. Just shut up! I don’t have any more room for noise; you’re bursting my eardrums with your story. Shut up! Right now, I’m trying to handle my own mess.
Then I walk past the TV and I listen to their mess, and I go past the news and I listen to their mess, and I’ve got international noise going on, and it is deafening. Now, in the natural, when noise gets loud, we know it can damage the eardrums, but a recent study that was done at Germany’s Mainz University Medical Center says an increasing amount of noise.
Can actually throw your heart out of rhythm. It can cause atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation—that’s hard to say. What it is: an irregular heartbeat. It can create blood clots, can cause a stroke, and even lead to heart failure. If atrial fibrillation can lead to heart failure just from noise, there’s nothing biologically wrong with you, but the intensity of the noise in your life can affect the rhythm of your heart. It’s already messed up the rhythm of your sleep. Oh, y’all aren’t gonna talk to me.
This is God talking to you this morning. But it could go so far that it messes up the rhythm of your heartbeat. And it’s not just outer noise because I can cut off the TV, cut off the radio, and cut off the telephone. I can cut out all of that, but the noise in my head—anything that can create agitation, irritation, or changes your mood—affects your blood pressure and can trigger atrial fibrillation in your life just because you’re upset. It’s not surprising that irritable noise or noise in general, when someone is seeking quiet, could trigger cardiac arrest. That’s why I don’t answer the phone. That’s why every 900, I just don’t answer. I saw it, and I just don’t answer because you’re not gonna give me any heart attacks. I’m already at my limit.
Where are my real people at? I need some real people. Are there any real people in here who are already at their noise limit? You don’t need to know. I feel like the witch in it all; don’t nobody bring me any bad news. And yet you can’t wait for the noise to quiet down to move ahead. You can’t wait for the enemy to leave you alone to move ahead. You have to be able to go to work in the noise; you’ve got to be able to take care of the kids in the noise. You have to be able to cook dinner in the noise. You’ve got to be able to get dressed in the noise. You have to be able to function in noise that you can’t always control. And today, my goal is to show you what knowing will do to noise.