SPEAK LOVE!
"My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand." John 10:27-28
When my son or daughter is having a nightmare, I don't have to wake them up to calm them down. I just rest my hand gently on their faces and speak or sing softly for a few seconds, and they relax. They feel safe when they hear my voice because they know me and trust me. Even as their minds navigate unknown, unfamiliar, and sometimes scary emotional territory, my voice reminds them that they are always tethered to where they belong. When they hear my voice, their semi-conscious brains remember the hugs, conversations, meals, laughter, and experiences we have shared. My voice is like an auditory umbilical cord that nourishes their spirit with the reassurance that they are never lost, never abandoned. Even as they sleep, that one voice can carry them out of fear and back into peace, where they may even rewrite the course of their dreams. What was shadowy and ominous may dissolve in the warmth of a new light spilling through a window, or around a corner. What started out as fear may, in the wash of that light, transform into excitement about new possibilities. My voice only has this power for them because it is what they hear when we hug, talk, eat, and laugh. It's what they hear cheering them on from the sidelines and asking about their day in the car lines. My voice only has this power because they know me. They know I will always show up for them. They know that, while I am very far from perfect, I will always do everything it takes to never be far from them. They know that my voice will welcome them, accept all of them, forgive them, apologize to them, encourage them, cry with them, and guide them. They feel safe when they hear my voice because we have put in hours, days, months, and years together hugging, talking, eating, and laughing (and arguing!) our way through this messy and beautiful life. Wherever they go, and wherever I go, we are always a part of each other. No one will be able to take their identity, or their story of love, away from them.
We can complicate faith, getting caught up in arguments about who God is, how God loves, and what God does. We can ask for proof and claim we know who belongs and who doesn't. But at the end of the day the love of God is simple. We will know it by the sound of the voice who won't be silenced by hate. We will know it by the sound of the voice who won't stop calling to us when we feel lost. We will know it by the sound of the voice who won't stop reminding us that, while we are far from perfect, we are never far from God's love. We will recognize the voice of God because, at the sound of it, light will spill through the windows of our soul, make its way around dark corners, dissolving fear, and transforming it into possibility, courage, and hope. We will know God's voice because it is the same voice that has spoken love into our lives from the beginning through people who hug, talk, eat, laugh, and argue their way through this messy and beautiful journey with us. We will know God's voice because it is always the one calling us to the best in ourselves. It is always the one calling us into loving community. It's always the one saying, "I love you. I forgive you. Let's eat." No one can take that identity, or that story of love, away from us. But we must use our voices to speak the kind of love that gives life--that invites all people to navigate the unknown, unfamiliar, and sometimes scary territory of this life together. Speak love so that, as Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says, we can "change the world from the nightmare it often is into the dreams that God intends."
