Living Quietly in a Loud World

"Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you. In this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need. -1 Thessalonians 4:9–12

I will be the first to tell you that this has often been a struggle for me. Social media is both a powerful tool, and also an adversary. On the one hand, a person has a powerful platform from which to share meaningful thoughts. On the other hand, we humans tend to struggle with the ego inflation that comes from so much perpetual attention. Not only this, be we find ourselves often pressured to make that next zinger of a post. We speak our minds. We polarize. We don't think about who is affected, the consequences, or whether Christ is honored with our words.

Wisdom dictates that we don't say everything we are thinking, even if we are right. This is particularly true when we are angry. Proverbs 29:11 says as much. Anger and outrage make fools out of just about everyone. What should we do when we get so passionate about something, when we are triggered to the point of outrage? The wise people of old knew what to do, as did the Apostle Paul. We wait. We pray. We go to the scriptures. We listen for the voice of God. Just because you have an opinion, does not mean it must be said, particularly at the moment you feel that you want to give it full vent.

Often I have found myself giving full vent to my frustrations, political beliefs, and etc via social media. The Lord checked me on this a few years ago, and made me aware that the way I present an idea is just as important as the idea. Also, the Lord has reminded me that people are more important than my being right or setting something straight with a scathing post.

Many of us today have the mind of the world on this rather than the mind of Christ. Everyone has an opinion, most just say whatever they think. WE however, should seek to live a quiet life. What does this mean? It means we should not say too much. We should not be overly concerned with putting ourselves out there. We should be considerate of what we say. We should not make it our aim to cause a stir unless we have sought the Lord and believe it is absolutely what we are supposed to do. The voice that matters most in the culture is not the most frequent one, but the most well considered one.

I am not saying that we should never say anything difficult or controversial online. To do this we would have to abandon our call to preach the Gospel. What I am saying is that we should be careful how we say what we say and seek peace to the extent that it is possible for us to do so (Romans 12:18).

So let's do what the Scriptures say. Let's strive to live quiet lives, only stirring as the Lord leads us. Let's mind our own business and work hard at being good citizens of our communities. Let's not be rebel rousers, or contrarians, or busybodies, or pawns in the World's games. Rather let us seek to be the aroma, the peace, and the presence of Christ in this world.