This weekend I went to pick up a table from a friend's home. When I went to pop my trunk, it wouldn't open. Not only that, my trunk starting beeping, a high-pitched continuous beep. I tried locking and unlocking the car. I tried turning my car on and off. I continued trying various ways to get the beeping to stop but nothing was working. I realized I had to go and get Matt from school so I drove away from my friend's house with my trunk beeping all the way to get Matt.

When Matt and I arrived home, I googled options and tried them yet nothing was working. After a little while Matt said, "I need to get away from this noise." I found myself replying, "we need to get our heads above the noise."

After an hour of listening to the beeping and exploring every option we could find, I ended up bringing the car to the dealership. As we drove up to the dealership I laughed and said to Matt, "this won't take long because no one else wants to listen to this beeping for long."

Thankfully the people were quick to help us and find a solution to make the beeping stop.

I share this with you today because in life there is a lot of noise but unlike the beeping of my trunk, sometimes we can't make it stop. So what can we do?

I invite you to join me to...

pause. breathe. pray.

We need to find a way to get our heads above the noise.

How can we do that?

Four things we can actively do are:

- unplug and sit in silence and solitude
- breathe deeply
- pray
- meditate on God's Word

Practicing these four things isn't easy or a light switch that will immediately flick off the noise. Yet over time, and with practice, there is a quieting within that will happen. When we access this quiet space within, we will get closer to God's peace ruling our hearts and minds rather than the noise.

May we put these into practice so that even if the noise doesn't stop, like the beeping of my car, we are able to have greater peace within and gain wisdom on how to navigate the noisy circumstances.

With love and hope,
Shawn

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts
-Colossians 3:15