Adjusting to Life in the Country
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - So you're now living in the middle of nowhere
00:00:06.920 | in Tennessee, Pastor John.
00:00:08.060 | You live on a mountain and you have a porch
00:00:09.960 | that faces out towards the mountains.
00:00:12.420 | It sounds like a very serene and peaceful place.
00:00:15.380 | In Minneapolis, you've lived for the past 30 years
00:00:19.200 | in a very loud, urban setting in a house
00:00:21.760 | that's set next to the interstate.
00:00:23.520 | I mean, what has this adjustment been like
00:00:25.900 | from downtown Minneapolis
00:00:27.920 | to the middle of nowhere, Tennessee?
00:00:30.100 | - Well, it's taking some adjustment.
00:00:33.600 | It's funny, the Lord prepared me for it in a way.
00:00:38.020 | I came home in Minneapolis a few weeks ago
00:00:40.960 | and Mel-El and I got out of the car on a Saturday
00:00:44.520 | and we stopped and we said, "Something's wrong."
00:00:47.760 | And what was wrong was that Interstate 94 and 35W,
00:00:52.760 | which intersect in front of our house,
00:00:55.180 | had been shut down to build the bridge over Chicago Avenue
00:01:00.180 | and there was not a single car
00:01:02.880 | on these 15 lanes of freeway
00:01:05.040 | and the whole neighborhood sounded starkly silent.
00:01:09.680 | And I stood there thinking, "This is really weird.
00:01:12.440 | "I haven't heard this kind of silence for a long time."
00:01:15.880 | And that's the way it is here all the time.
00:01:18.980 | And so you sit on the front porch
00:01:21.920 | and there's nothing but this cow about a mile away,
00:01:26.100 | it seems like, I don't know what he's doing.
00:01:28.300 | And then there's the birds that you can hear.
00:01:32.220 | There are no cars anywhere.
00:01:34.400 | And so it is, I think, an adjustment of soul
00:01:39.400 | by which you get accustomed to the sounds of nature
00:01:45.280 | as opposed to the sounds of man.
00:01:48.300 | And it remains yet to be seen to me
00:01:50.760 | what effect that's gonna have on my soul.
00:01:54.180 | I have no desire, Tony,
00:01:58.220 | to spend the last 10 years of my life
00:02:02.220 | sitting on a front porch staring at God's beauty
00:02:05.600 | because the world has fallen
00:02:07.540 | and I think God's gonna give me about a billion years
00:02:10.220 | sitting on a front porch staring at his beauty.
00:02:13.180 | And his call on me now is to get retooled
00:02:17.620 | in a sweet place of peace and quiet, as I write,
00:02:22.620 | and fit me to throw my life back into the fray
00:02:28.360 | of where most people in the world live
00:02:30.800 | with all of their sorrows.
00:02:32.860 | And so I'm thankful for this year, really, really thankful.
00:02:36.540 | And maybe I can tune back in with you months ahead
00:02:40.160 | and say, "Here's the effect that kind of silences head."
00:02:43.160 | I can give you one funny effect.
00:02:45.080 | I can hear my wife breathing now,
00:02:47.620 | which can be good. - Of course.
00:02:51.240 | - It can be bad because I'm used to having
00:02:54.920 | just a nice hum of the freeway all night long,
00:02:59.000 | kind of white sound.
00:03:00.180 | And here, there is no white sound at all.
00:03:04.480 | So every little move in the bed and every breath,
00:03:07.680 | I'm alert to, so we'll see how that shakes out.
00:03:10.440 | - Wonderful.
00:03:12.440 | We will check in with you in the future
00:03:13.660 | about the transition, Pastor John.
00:03:14.900 | Thank you.
00:03:15.800 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:03:17.520 | You can keep up with Pastor John's latest resources,
00:03:20.080 | his sermons, blog posts, and other resources
00:03:22.440 | that he's producing at desiringgod.org.
00:03:25.640 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:03:26.760 | Thanks for listening.
00:03:27.800 | (upbeat music)
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00:03:32.960 | [BLANK_AUDIO]