Retreat From Clamor

Sometimes we see a bewildered dog running loose in a crowd, harassed by calls and whistles coming from many directions, and dodging here and there in cruel confusion. Comparisons are seldom accurate in all details, but there are some points of comparison in the plight of a dog and in the perplexity of people whose thoughts and loyalties and time and attention are being constantly competed for from many sources and in many confusing ways.

Our generation has been exposed to more voices, to more print, to more information and misinformation than any generation in history, because the facilities for communication are greater now than ever before. It is a day of voices that urge us to move in many ways, each claiming to be the way out, the way to peace and safety – the way home. There is discrepancy among the things we read, among the things we hear – statement and counter-statement – making it difficult at times to discriminate. And amid all this confusion and contradiction a man must make his choices. But he must not, like the dog in the crowd, be diverted by all the calls that come from whatever source. If he did, he would drop in his tracks, an exhausted victim of confusion.

If we don’t hear one clear call that rings true, we need not strike out blindly and follow any voice that happens to be the most insistent at the moment. To do so is to invite more confusion. The safer course is to withdraw at times, to pause and to think things through.

Every man needs times of silence, of solitude, and of prayerful thoughtfulness; and sometimes to shut out insistent, demanding confusing voices if he is to keep his reason. And even if we can’t get away to the quiet places of the earth, we can at least retreat within ourselves at times and let our own thoughts talk to us, and let quiet judgment re-sharpen our sense of value and direction.

The Creator of heaven and earth did not leave us at the mercy of complete confusion. There is a source of peace and perspective, if we will only take time to shut out the clamor, and calmly, prayerfully think our own thoughts. It is a wise man who makes far-reaching decisions in unhurried thoughtfulness. It is a wise man who does not permit himself to be stampeded by clamoring and confusing voices that call in many different directions.