Your Voice and Message

We all have a voice and a message, but we mute or censor ourselves for various reasons (fear, doubt, lack of awareness). Yet, the screeching and yelling of those espousing ignorance or foolishness go unfettered and even unchallenged. Yet, our messages of hope, comfort, love, and peace are silenced. (Isn’t it amazing that those who espouse hate and division speak the loudest, seem to have the biggest platforms, and speak without any fear or doubt?)

However, God has given Christians the Good News (Romans 10:15), the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19), and a general message of hope (see Isaiah 50:4). Yet, how are we supposed to share the Gospel or reconcile people to Christ if we don’t open our mouths? Further, how are we supposed to give hope to the hopeless or comfort the grieving if we don’t open our mouths and speak?  

We are responsible for telling the world the things God placed in our hearts to say to them. For instance, I need to speak to women diagnosed with breast cancer that there’s hope. I want to tell women facing a divorce that they can experience an even greater love afterward. I must tell women who’ve lost a child that I understand their pain.  

Unfortunately, many of us feel that we don’t have anything important to share. We think our voices don’t matter, and we don’t understand that someone somewhere can find healing in our messages. God can transform our experiences into messages, but we must stop letting fear or doubt silence our voices.  

So, I encourage you to open your mouth and speak and open your heart and share. And for you writers, I encourage you to open your laptop or notebook and write that message that’s been in your heart.  

Don’t waste your message. 

~Aretha