CLAMOR

Oswald Chambers talked about the clamor of life. Back when. I wonder what he'd say about clamor today.

Clamor is one of those words that needs defining. Our son suggests commotion. Unorganized chaos, my wife suggests. For me clamor is what gets in the way. So I guess they're both right. Along with Oswald.

New York City is constant clamor to me. Swarming with people hurrying to get there before anyone else, wherever there is. It's sensory overload with sounds, blurring sights, activity--commotion and chaos in the city that never sleeps. Yet recently I was told at Maxey's and Roxy's delis that they didn't open until 7:30 AM. Too late for our flight, so at Times Square, I'm forced to eat McDonald's because the city that never sleeps, never woke up in time for me.

But NY still defines the word better than LA, Tokyo, Beijing, or Rome. Somehow there aren't the lights, the movement that New York has. Tokyo is second. The others all distant thirds.

LA certainly defines traffic jam better than the others, but in my experience, Seoul is a close second and ahead of NYC. But even downtown LA isn't all that clamorous though it may be all that glamorous.

A recent syllogistic illogic Facebook statement that some have embraced goes something like this--saying that to be a Christian you have to be in a church is like saying that in order to be a car you have to be in a garage. Maybe I didn't word it quite right, but that's the gist. To me, one of the least places for clamor is in a church.

I've heard others claim they could be near to God in the outdoors, in the mountains, on a golf course. But they're as wrong as the analogy about church and garage. Corporate worship is necessary in a clamorous world that seems to thrive on individuality.

We all need companionship. We all need peers. But most importantly we all need God.