Two months ago, I decided to quiet the noise and stopped watching the news. No politics. No talk shows. No scrolling through the outrage of the day. I didn’t announce it. I didn’t make it a New Year’s resolution or a 30-day challenge. I just quietly stopped.
And I have to be honest with you — it’s been some of the most peaceful two months I’ve had in a long time.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you I never think about it. Some days I do. Some days I feel that old pull to check in, just to see what’s going on, just to “stay informed.” I’ll be honest — sometimes I want to. But then I stop and ask myself one question: why would I pull myself back into the mess I just climbed out of?
Because that’s what it was. A mess. And it was dividing people, causing hate, and breaking relationships — in business, in families, in friendships, everywhere I looked. I wrote about some of this noise a few weeks back in The Noise I Don’t Need Anymore — but stepping away from the news has shown me the noise runs even deeper than I realized.
Jesus Christ Is My Agenda
I’m not writing this to start a political fight — that’s the last thing I want, and honestly, it’s the whole reason I stepped away in the first place. I just know that when I stopped feeding on the noise, I had room to feed on something else. Jesus Christ became my agenda. He’s where my faith lives, and He’s what I’m building my life on, one day at a time.
Some of that building looks like specific prayers I’ve prayed getting specific answers — not vague, not “maybe,” but real. Some of it looks like sitting down with my devotional every morning, which does more to plan and motivate my day than anything on a news feed ever did. Some of it looks like asking Jesus for forgiveness daily — for the sins I know about, the ones I’ve forgotten, the ones I never even mentioned. I’ve got a long list. We all do.
I’m a sinner. I’m imperfect. I know it, and He knows it too. But I want to do better — as a man, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a leader in my career. Not because it earns me anything, but because it works. It feels better. It leads to better outcomes, better relationships, even compliments I don’t go looking for. And when that happens, Jesus gets the credit, not me.
My goal isn’t recognition. It’s to lead by example — so that my whole family sees a man who identifies his failures, owns them, and uses his faith in Jesus to strengthen everything else. I don’t need or deserve an award for that. I just need to know what I’m trying to do, and let it show up in how I treat the people around me.
Why the World Is This Loud
Here’s what I’ve come to believe after stepping back from all of it: the world isn’t loud because of politics, or the news, or social media. Those are just the microphones. The world is loud because so many hearts are empty, and noise is what people reach for to fill a silence they don’t know how to sit in.
Jesus talked about this. In Matthew 12:43-45 (NLT), He describes an unclean spirit that leaves a man, wanders through empty places looking for rest, finds none, and comes back to find the house “empty, swept, and put in order” — so it moves back in, and brings friends with it. I’m not saying that’s literally what’s happening to every person scrolling the news. I’m saying the principle holds: empty space doesn’t stay empty. Something always fills it.
For me, the news had stopped informing me and started filling space where God was supposed to live. This is exactly why I wrote Not Every Voice Deserves a Seat at the Table — because what you let in matters as much as what you keep out.
Paul says it plainly in Philippians 4:8 (NLT) — fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. And in Colossians 3:2 (NLT), he tells us to set our sights on the realities of heaven, not on things of this world. The outrage cycle asks for the opposite of both — it wants your thoughts fixed on what’s wrong, unfair, and infuriating, all day, every day.
How I Learned to Quiet the Noise
I decided to quiet the noise in my own house, and I started filling my heart with Jesus instead — more prayer, more of His Word, more attention paid to my wife, my kids, my grandkids, the people right in front of me instead of the arguments happening a thousand miles away on a screen.
I’m not saying you have to quit the news forever. I’m not even saying it’s sin to watch it. I’m saying: check your heart. If what you’re consuming is making you more anxious, more bitter, more divided from people you’re supposed to love — it might be time to quiet the noise in your own house too. I learned the hard way in Winning the Argument While Losing Your Heart that being right isn’t worth it if it costs you your peace — or your witness.
I don’t have a trophy for any of this. No award, no certificate, no “look what I did.” That was never the goal. I just wanted to know, for myself, what I’m actually trying to do with the days I’ve got — and let the people watching me, my wife, my kids, my grandkids, see it lived out instead of just talked about. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by everything around you, maybe it’s time you quiet the noise around you too and fill it with something that actually lasts.
A Short Prayer
Lord, forgive me for the times I’ve let the noise of this world drown out Your voice. Help me fill the empty places in my heart with You instead of distraction. Give me the discernment to know what to let in and what to leave outside my door. I’m a work in progress, Lord — but I’m still in the fight, and I know You’re fighting it with me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
