Two years ago, the noise on my Facebook page was horrifying. So much anger and hatred. Politics, Faith, Health, and Interpersonal Relationships were crashing into each other with great waves of sound and emotion. It made my head hurt. It made my heart hurt. I tried listening. I tried reasoning. I tried educating..sharing fact based resources. But it seemed, everyone on the planet believed THEY knew what was right, what was truth, what was fact.

I seriously couldn’t take it. I prayed about it and asked God to please tone down the noise level in my life. Something like a dull roar, perhaps. The message I got was…”Do what I ask of you. Write.” So, I kept writing. And slowly, slowly, slowly…the noise level has dropped tremendously, even in the midst of the current events. 

I’m sure there are those who have disconnected from me, just as there are some I have disconnected myself from. Life is too short to live it in constant turmoil. I’ve learned to put a governor on my mouth. I don’t have to always be “right”. I don’t have to know all the answers. I’m not an expert on international relations or politics or science. I’m just a grandma who loves Jesus and has less years in front of me than I do behind. 

When I look through my newsfeed on Facebook now, it’s filled with friends showing off their grandbabies or their latest quilting project or their favorite music group. There are posts about the news of the day, but these folks are all respectful. If they see something they don’t agree with, they either scroll on by or offer their viewpoint in a non-confrontational way. It’s like…all of a sudden…people are remembering their manners. At least, they are in my little curated corner of the world.

I don’t have my head in the sand. I know what’s going on in the world. And, I dare say, the trolls are still out there…stirring up trouble. But I’ve uninvited them from my party. Consequently, the silence on my page is almost deafening. There is a part of me that wonders what they’re up to. Are they cooking up something bad? Is there another shoe about to drop? I do not know. All I know is, I know how this story ends. I know Who wins…and that’s the side I’m sticking to. Besides, I never wake up a sleeping baby.

I’ll enjoy this peace and quiet. I can pray so much better without all the noise. Our home is more peaceful. I’m sleeping better than I think I ever have. My anxiety reactions are fewer and farther between. It almost feels like I’ve been let out of prison. And, in a way, I suppose I have…albeit a self-imposed one. I’ve prayed over and over and over in the last several months. 

“Lord, please change me.”

Indeed…my prayers have been answered. Something inside me has changed. I can’t even describe it other than I have this inner peace that feels like a bubbling spring of fresh water in my chest. 

Living Water.

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“Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.””

John 4:13-14 ESV