A quiet voice from the past recently surfaced amid the clutter of my Facebook feed: a video clip of the late Fred Rogers. In it, he offered a gentle admonition that feels more urgent now than when he spoke it over thirty years ago.
“I’m very concerned,” he said, “that our society is much more interested in information than wonder – in noise, rather than silence.”
Mr. Rogers was speaking to a pre-internet, pre-smartphone world, a time when the 24-hour news cycle was perhaps the greatest source of clamor. Just imagine his reaction to our current reality, a world of constant pings, updates, and opinions that we carry in our pockets.
His words are not merely a cultural critique; they are a deeply spiritual prescription. They echo the consistent call throughout Scripture to seek quiet communion with God. The psalmist writes, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). This is not a passive suggestion but an active command to cease striving, to quiet the internal and external chatter, and to remember who is ultimately in control. In short, God and Mr. Rogers are both giving us permission to stop and wonder.
In the relentless pursuit of information, we often lose the capacity for wonder—the awe that comes from recognizing the divine in the everyday. We consume news about the world at the expense of being present in it. The prophet Elijah did not find God in the great wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12). How can we possibly hope to hear it over the din of our own lives?
Jesus himself modeled this essential rhythm, repeatedly withdrawing from the crowds and the demands of ministry to pray in solitude or to recharge in Bethany. He understood that the strength for engagement comes first from moments of quiet contemplation.
Mr. Rogers’s message is a timely spiritual reminder. In an age of overwhelming noise, the intentional pursuit of silence is not a luxury; it is a sacred discipline. It is, I dare say, the ‘neighborly’ thing to do.
The Rev. Andrew McLarty is Rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Columbus.
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