Jon recently shared the value of audibly telling our souls to rest.

I thought a lot about that, as I love to consume information.

Most Saturday mornings, I wake up too early and enjoy the weekend edition of a national newspaper over a slow breakfast, before anyone else in the house is awake. I gravitate toward the culture-oriented stories, but I do read enough of the news to often get upset.

I visit Google News daily, partly to see what’s going on in the world. (I need to know the latest news to do my job well.) I also enjoy being able to consume the news at my pace and not the pace of what gets fed to me through the radio.

I realize that algorithms control the Google News feed.

What I allow to enter my brain is a bit like those algorithms. When I feed myself with a lot of one thing, that’s what continues to pop into my mind.

That’s a great reason to turn off the flow and listen to God.

And to be still.

Paul Merrill writes here every first Friday of each month.