Your Voice

We live in a society that worships voices.  If you have power and control, everyone listens to you.  If you tell everyone to stop their typical rhythms, they stop.  If you have a wonderful singing voice, everyone listens to your singing.  If you’re a celebrated professional athlete, you have a platform to speak, and people listen to you.

You also have a voice, and over time, you’ve formed an image.  People who like you listen to your voice when you speak to them.  If they don’t like you, they don’t listen to you.  If you listen to people over time, we all have a message that we repeat over and over again.  Being creatures of habit, we tend to go back to the same places and interact with the same people.  Eventually, some people get to know us so well that they recognize us by our voice. 

One of my friends who played Spirit-Driven Soccer for years now works at Tim Horton’s.  Recently, I placed my order at the drive-through, and when I pulled up to the window to get my favorite coffee, she told her co-workers, “I told you it was Glenn!”  She knew my voice from years of interacting with me, and she knows that I care about her.  I recognize her as a person and talk with her every time I see her at Tim Horton’s.  I try to treat each person I’m with like they’re the most important person in the whole world because that’s how Jesus treats me.      

What makes you want to listen to someone’s voice?  Is it who they are?  What they’re saying?  What they’re teaching or promoting?  What they believe?  What you believe about them?  Is it the trust-based relationship you’ve formed with them over time?  I believe that people listen more to you when they know that you deeply care about them.  When you have demonstrated over time that they matter to you, then they begin to recognize your voice and listen more to you. 

Most people want to be known and loved.  Most people long to have someone who will listen and care for them when they tell their stories.  But when people have gone a long time without being heard and cared for, they stop talking.  They shut down.  You can tell when someone is listening.  You can tell when people care by their listening.  You can also tell when people don’t care because they don’t listen. They’re either too busy talking, distracted, preoccupied, or don’t even recognize your presence or respond to your voice. 

If this blog finds you feeling discouraged and if you feel like you and your voice don’t matter…keep reading.  I’ve spent my life ministering to people of all ages who didn’t believe that they had a voice.  I’ve learned from my multi-ethnic, multi-generational teachers that by listening and paying attention to people, they start to come alive.  They notice when you notice them.  People are starving to have someone listen to their voice.  People are dying to be loved.  People are wondering if they have value, and when you pay attention and listen to them, you are communicating their value. 

God gave you a unique voice.  He gave you messages to communicate.  He knows your voice, and He listens carefully to you.  He knows what you’re going to say even before you say it. (Psalm 139:4)  God knows what you need.  He has a person-specific plan to meet your needs.  God knows what you’re feeling because He gave you those feelings.  He loves you even when the people around you don’t know how to love you.  God knows everything about you, and He loves your voice.  The more you exercise your voice, the stronger it gets. 

Don’t quit using your voice.  Exercise it.  Develop it.  Use your voice to make a difference in people’s lives.  But don’t talk until you have something valuable to say.  Listen as much as you talk.  Mark your words, and only speak words that are life-giving.  Don’t slap people with your words; love people with your words.  Be a divine channel of God’s love through your words and through your actions.  Listen.  Speak.  Sing.  Draw.  Create.  Cook.  Bake.  Serve.  Help.  Build.  Fix.  Clean.  Walk.  Jog.  Drive.  Work.  Teach.  Care.  Play.  Pray.  Share.  Watch what God does to breathe new life into you and into others as you use the gift of your voice.  You’re always communicating.  Do it wisely.