You ask the Lord to silence the noise that steals your peace. But let me ask you: which noise truly disturbs you? The sound of a tool in a manās hand, or the turmoil of anger and exasperation that roars within your own heart? There are three kinds of war, as the Apostle teaches us to pray against. The first is when armies clash on distant fields; the second, when neighbors bite and devour one another; the third, and most dangerous, is when a manās own soul rises up in rebellion against him, arming evil desires, vexation, and resentment. If you had won the peace within, that grinding iron could no more steal your tranquility than the wind steals from a mountain. But when the inner citadel is breached, the smallest sound becomes an enemy.
You closed your window, but you did not close the door of your heart against the spirit of contention. To ask God to change anotherās labor for your convenience, when their work is honest and harms no soul, is to invite the Lord into a battle He has no mind to fight. God is not a God of war and fighting; He is the God of peace, who makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good. Did you think to pray only that the noise might cease, and not also for the man who makes it? Did you ask for patience to bear a small affliction, for opportunity to learn humility, or for grace to love a neighbor who asks nothing of you but to endure the ordinary sounds of his toil?
If you would be a peacemaker, and remember, the peacemakers are called sons of God, then make peace first with your own spirit. Say to your soul, āWhy art thou cast down, and why art thou disquieted within me?ā What great harm is this? A little noise, which soon will pass. Yet the noise of worldly fretting, once it gains hold, grinds away at the soul day and night, never ceasing. Which is the heavier burden: a neighbor repairing a few doors, or a heart laden with self-will and constant demand for ease? The yoke of sin is heavy indeed, filled with anxieties and complaints that spring up like waves without end. But the yoke of Christ, patience, meekness, love, that yoke is sweet and light. It says, āI will be at peace with them that hate peace,ā and āWhen I speak, they are for war, but I give myself to prayer.ā
This man works in his garage; perhaps he has no other place to go. Did you, when you prayed, consider his need, or only your own? The command of the Lord is to love your neighbor as yourself. Imagine yourself in his place, needing to finish a task, yet surrounded by those who would hinder you with their displeasure. Would that not grieve you? If you show no mercy to his small fault of disturbing your quiet, how shall you ask God for mercy in your far greater faults? He that shows no mercy shall have judgment without mercy.
Therefore, instead of praying only for the noise to stop, lift your heart in a different prayer. Pray for the man, that God would bless his work and his home. Pray for yourself, that you may be granted a spirit of patience, that you may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, not measuring godliness by outward silence but by inward stillness before God. When the noise comes again, say within yourself, āThis is but a breath; it cannot wound my soul unless I allow it. I will thank God that I have ears to hear, a home to dwell in, and a neighbor whose labor reminds me to pray.ā And then pray for him. In this way, what was a thief of your peace becomes a teacher of virtue. You may close your window, but open your heart, and the grinding will soon be forgotten in the greater peace that comes from above.