The "voice of the people"

"I will not fear the tens of thousands...." (Psalm 3:6).

The "voice of the people" can be most strident and fickle. "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" We can also slough off responsibility this way: "Let George or Mary or them do it. After all, they have more money, more time, more talent than I have." But God has given each of us the same of what the others have, even if it isn't the same amount.

Numbers cannot make us happy. Most of Jesus’ miracles were one-on-one. And true friends come one at a time. Jesus is the perfect Friend, for He is the only one who will never misunderstand us; we can tell Him anything and know that it won't go any further. Sorrow is very lonely, too: "Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone."

"I do not believe that any human being is fundamentally happier for being finally lost in a crowd, even if it called a crowd of comrades" (G.K. Chesterton, As I Was Saying); "In the crowd, herd, or gang, it is a mass-mind that operates - which is to say, a mind without subtlety, a mind without compassion, a mind, finally, uncivilized" (Robert Lindner, Must You Conform?); "He who goes into a crowd must now go one way and then another, keep his elbows close, retire, or advance, and quit the straight way, according to what he encounters" (Montaigne, Essays).

Oswald Chambers tells us, "Solitude with God repairs the damage done by the fret and noise and clamour of the world." We are born alone and we die alone. There are milestones and obligations in all our lives that only we can face. In 1 Samuel 9:27, Samuel tells Saul, after asking him to send his servant ahead, "I have received a special message for you from the Lord." Perhaps we need to send ahead what so distracts us that we may hear the special message from God. It's difficult to do in this noisy world!

“One of the impressive things about the greatest engines is the silence with which they do their work. The stars rushing through space with a force we cannot even imagine do so in silence. The same thing may be observed in regard to the work which is done in the world. The most powerful is always very quiet. The great spiritual ministry of the Christian Church is carried forward with very little noise. Noise is not the same as work; frenzy is not power” (Anonymous).