This past Christmas break, my wife and I were able to spend some
time in Arizona. We’re beginning to wonder why we came back, but I
digress.
Arizona is beautiful, especially this time of year. We
stayed in a friend’s home located in the low desert between Phoenix and
Tucson. They average eight inches of rain a year. So Terry and I
were startled one evening, awakened by the sounds of a good old Midwest
thunderstorm. I didn’t know where I was at first, used to hearing
this in the Midwest, but not realizing thunderstorms occur in the
desert. It forced me to reorient myself to a familiar sound in an
unfamiliar place.
Misplaced sounds. Sounds that take place in locations
we aren’t familiar with. These can confuse us, causing us to become
disoriented, just like we were that night in the desert.
Have you even had an experience like this? Something
you aren’t familiar with happens, causing you to consider whether it’s even
real. Like our asking if thunderstorms happen in the desert. That’s
what misplaced sounds can do. Familiar sounds you hear in an unfamiliar
place. It's even more unsettling when you hear unfamiliar sounds in a
familiar place, like your pre-schooler yelling from the back bedroom.
When the noises we hear are strange, unusual, it may be they are
just new. They can seem foreign, even confusing. The new
and strange isn’t always easy to process. When you are awakened from deep sleep
by a familiar sound heard in another place, different or new can be startling
and often questioned.
So Terry and I had to be educated to the fact that thunder and
lightning aren’t foreign to the desert, although rare. We got to experience it.
The sounds and noises you hear might seem new, even strange to
you. They may be difficult to listen to, to
understand. This might be the reason Dick Staub in his
book, The Culturally Savvy Christian says that “unless we love
the truth, we will never recognize it.”
Part of our journey may not be just about listening better. It may
be more about being willing to hear something for the first
time. What might sound out of place won’t mean it isn’t true; it
might just mean we’re hearing it for the first time.
I had to accept the fact that even though thunder and lightning
aren’t common in the desert and I had never experienced a thunderstorm there
before, they do occur. For those living in the desert, I’m showing
you my lack of experience — even ignorance — to what is common for you.
Here's the truth: What is true isn’t limited by my
experiences, because things happen beyond what I know all the
time. The sense that, for me, these were misplaced sounds didn’t
change their reality. It was a first for me, but I can tell you with
confidence that thunder and lightning occur in the desert, because I heard
them.
I want to be willing to recognize that just because something is
new and sounds strange, even foreign, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. I
may have never heard this before, or it may be beyond my experience,
but that doesn’t mean I don’t need to pay attention.
Strange noises, although disrupting, can be helpful — even
necessary — in our seeking to walk more fully in the way of
Jesus. The question for us is: Are we willing to consider that what
may be new and unfamiliar is also true?
Colossians 2:6–8
