When Your Voice is Gone
I had my left vocal cord stripped due to hoarseness brought on by Covid 19, and I am in total vocal rest until Wednesday, April 28. If you know me very well you are probably thinking how difficult this time is for me. But....we move on and hope for a good report on Monday and my voice coming back stronger than ever. In the midst of this interruption in my life I have been trying to get perspective to come to a conclusion of what my Father is trying to teach me.
In the midst of a world that is having trouble finding identity I am once again searching for mine, but searching in the only place where there is truth, real truth. The Bible. In Ephesians 4 the apostle Paul is calling this group of believers to maturity in the Lord. In the following verses you will quickly hear the truth of what he is saying. Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gavethe apostles,the prophets,the evangelists,the pastors and teachers,12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. In these verses we see Paul calling those at Ephesus to stand in the truth they have heard from him and not drift away from that truth by following half truths told by the major majority of the day. This lesson is for us today as well. The world needs to hear the pure truth of the Word of God and it is the only hope we can bank on when things get weird. So, if we can't speak it is hard to speak that truth and that fact is supremely evident for me. Of course, as I am doing now "we can write it down." But speaking it, and of course, living it is so much more effective and now that I can't speak for awhile I long for the opportunity to speak that truth again and it will mean so much more to me now. And of course, I want to sing again and sing as I know I can with a vocal cord that is healed and ready to go. It is my prayer that in the days ahead, in the days of my silence I will listen to God's Word and listen to my heart and reevaluate how I will use my voice to proclaim the truth of the Word of God.
My voice is gone now, but I am praying it will come back strong and that I will proclaim more vigorously the gospel of Jesus Christ as opportunity presents itself. And by the way ladies. This is a little known truth about your vocal cords and how easy it is to proclaim the gospel yourselves. Because a woman's vocal cords are shorter than a man's she can actually speak with less effort than he can. Shorter vocal cords not only cause a woman's voice to be more highly pitched, but also require less air to become agitated, making it possible for her to talk more with less energy expended. Just something to think about....
The Pilgrimage Continues......
David Warren