Kindly allow me to indulge my inner geek for a moment.

Embryologically, the human ear[i] begins to be formed at around 22 days post-conception. As just a thickening on the ectoderm. Rudimentary, really. Incidentally, the eyes start to form around the same time. We can hear from around 18 weeks gestation, according to those in the know). And our first sound (aside from our own frantic heartbeat, probably), is our mother’s much slower heartbeat.[ii] Then her breathing and bowel sounds[iii]. Then, our mother’s voice[iv].

The point is: we are hearing the world around us from long before we are born[v]. When we ARE finally born, we show a preference for that one constant voice we’d been hearing: our mother.

At first, Ms Voice just makes interesting and differently pitched sounds. Then we slowly learn that different sounds carry actual meaning[vi]. Sounds eventually become words, which in turn form part of a language. In tandem with our understanding of language, our ability to speak sense also develops. Mostly.

From our first breath to our last, voices surround us. Sometimes in the audible form, sometimes ideas and opinions put into books. Sometimes, subtly, embedded in the music and other forms of art we consume. Family, friends, teachers, strangers, that advert on TV. Everybody, and everything, has something to say. Some of it is crucial, some is meaningless noise.

Our ears hear all of it[vii], and our brains must do the work of processing and categorising. What inevitably happens, though, is that meaningless information is stored in a place where the useful ought to be.

Speaking of information, let me segue into a whirlwind summary of the Information Age. There’s a point to all of this. I promise.

The Information Age shifted us from newspapers and the post, to the telegram, and then to television and the telephone (y’all we really used to have one telephone for the village. The major innovation in the 80s was each household finally getting a direct landline). Then we had cellular telephones! And then the telephones became Internet Enabled! And then came that wonderful new invention: social media!

Social media has opened us up to millions of disembodied voices, each preaching/amplifying their own viewpoint. And the voices keep coming at us.

Whether it’s millions of opinions or the never-ending news headlines from every corner of the globe, our brains are having to process as much information within one month “than was required of our grandfathers in the course of a lifetime.” To paraphrase a quote by one James Crichton Browne[viii].

In other words, we’re dealing with a lot of input. And it comes at us FAST, leading to us being confused, anxious, unfocused and tired. Frazzled, in short[ix].

(Also, can we please discuss for 10 marks cell phones, and the perpetual connectivity they facilitate? Cell phones have really become instruments of remote torture for many of us. Who among us have not had a near panic attack at that work e-mail notification? Or when we hear that ring tone reserved solely for work phone numbers? On a Saturday afternoon. But I digress.)

And I don’t know about you, but there’s also my own brain that gets noisy: random rabbit-holes I disappear into, replayed conversations/arguments, imaginary court cases where I am ALWAYS right, fears, worries. All narrated by my inner critic, who at times sounds like me, at other times like some authority figure (living rent-free in my head, as the cool kids of today say).

Silence is hard to come by, bazakes. Beyond the physical kind of hearing, we deeply suffer from lack of stillness. See above. It’s an epidemic, really.

Stillness is crucial to us as believers. It is only in stillness that we can access the other type of hearing. Hearing the Lord.

In the book of John, the tenth chapter, Jesus says of Himself,

“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd sacrifices Himself for the sheep[x] …I know my sheep, and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father…My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me.”

I reckon the lack of silence serves some nefarious purpose[xi]. It works to the advantage of the enemy of our souls. Obviously, the enemy of our souls—that thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy—does not want us hearing our Good Shepherd’s voice.

So that we are not led by still waters.

So that our souls are not restored.

So that we forget that He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.

So that we do not hear Him say, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give your rest.”

So that we do not know that our Saviour came to give us life, and life abundantly[xii].

Therefore if, like me, you find yourself all things harried and frazzled, perhaps it is because we have allowed many voices to drown out the Voice of our Shepherd.

Because our minds have limited capacity, we can only really focus in on one thing at a time: both in the natural, and in the spiritual sense. The many sounds clamouring for pre-eminence often lead us to miss the voice of the Holy Spirit, speaking as He does in a still, small voice[xiii].

We who are born again of God’s Spirit need to attune our ears to His voice. Kind of like how our little baby ears were attuned to listen for and hear our mother’s voice since birth.

This begins by hearing God’s Word, by reading the Scriptures He has given us. As we get familiar with His Word, we get familiar with His character, His voice. Tuning into His voice also means intentionally dialling down as many of the other voices and noise that clamour for our attention daily as is possible.

(But like, obviously if the bundle of joy is screaming, or a friend needs a listening ear and comforting shoulder, listening is necessary.)

Maybe I need to turn off the voices from YouTube telling me about the 5 things to do to thrive in 2025 (*insert eye roll*)/how the world is imploding in 2025[xiv] and rather remember that the Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters.

And perhaps—perhaps—I really do not need to know the latest celebrity gossip or exposé. But rather remember that the Lord is my Light and my Salvataion.

Maybe I can do without another self-help book, promising me success beyond my wildest imaginations. I can rather remember that the Lord is my ever present help in time of need

Maybe we need to turn off the voices telling us who we should be, what to believe, what to strive for (beauty, possessions, power). The voices telling us what we should look like, what we ought to have accomplished at our big age. The voices telling us what to do to be loved and accepted (never mind that the ‘what’ is an ever-shifting goalpost in the culture). These voices try to validate our reason for existence, having added nothing to the formation of our beings. These voices are loud, and they are many.

Into this melee of many voices promulgating various viewpoints and strategies for ultimate (read: material) success, I add my own. If only to loudly remind us of the One Voice that truly matters: our Father God. What that Voice says matters. Not what the culture has told us.

His is the Voice that says, “Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest. Take upon you My yoke, for My yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

And He says: “Be still, and know that I am God. And I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Let Him be exalted, bazakes.

Amen.

©Copyright reserved. Gugulethu Mhlanga. 2025.

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[i] Well, the internal ear, in any case. The entire process, including middle and outer ear apparatus is only complete at around 35 weeks gestation.

[ii] Mind you, this is mostly conjecture. I don’t think any of us had the memory forming capabilities at 18 weeks gestation in order to accurately say one way or the other. But go with me.

[iii] That steak she ate. What a wonderful. What a marvellous.

[iv] The order actually goes: music, then father’s voice (lower pitch), THEN mother’s voice at around 27-29 weeks.

[v] Unfortunately, this developmental process can be impeded and hindered by many factors, leading to difficulties with hearing.

[vi] Although the bull-headed young human might like to pretend that Mom makes no sense, we know she does.

[vii] Or our eyes sense it.

[viii] Nami angimazi lomuntu. (I do not know this man. Sorry to this man.)

[ix] There has been academic research into the impact of social media in particular, on our mental state

[x] In a world that wants to suck the last bit of focus and money and worship from us

[xi] I won’t go to the extreme and say that all music/media is devil-music/media just because it does not explicitly speak of holy things, but the noise, the clamour can be one more tool in our enemy’s arsenal. Stay vigilant.

[xii] John 10:10

[xiii] 1 Kings 19:12-13

[xiv] We do have many problems, but such is the world that has rejected God, and is marked for destruction. Or so the second law of thermodynamics states.