I'm Ready

It’s rough when I wake up. It shakes when I cry. It’s rarely quiet. Sometimes it’s so fast and furious and full of passion I can’t contain it. But, sometimes it’s silent. Silent when maybe it shouldn’t be.

It’s my voice. A voice I am just now, after attending The Justice Conference this past weekend, realizing has real power. While at the conference, I met a mom who is spreading the word about sex-trafficking in her California city by holding monthly get-togethers with friends; a woman helping reform the view of girls in China; a man who works endless hours freeing slaves from factories in foreign lands; and many other ordinary, yet inspiring people. Men and women who found a cause they were so passionate about they couldn’t remain silent. A cause that hit them in the gut so hard the injustice of it made them sick, and they just couldn’t hold their tongue any longer.

So why am I silent? Sometimes there’s power in silence, but more often than not I am silent because speaking up would mean making me vulnerable to criticism. Sometimes I don’t say anything because I’m embarrassed. What will my friends and family think if suddenly I am urging them to buy fair trade and spending my time speaking up for those enslaved? Why do I care?

Jesus tells us that there’s power in that tongue of ours. Power to hurt, but more so power to help and heal. So maybe now’s the time we use that positive power we have available in our voice.

And when our voice quakes? When it shakes and skips when we try to speak? Those are the words that are the most important. The least comfortable to speak. Because comfortable never talked anyone out of an abortion. Comfortable never freed anyone from the sex trade. And comfortable never sat with a mom dying of AIDs, assuring her that her children would be taken care of.

Comfortable doesn’t move mountains or change lives.

I’m ready to use my voice. Are you?

—Mallary Johnson, Social Media Manager

P.S. As the social media manager, I am on our Facebook and Twitter a good bit! Would love to hear from you there!