Where There is Shouting, Let me Whisper Truth

If I can shout louder than you can, does that make me right?

Does the volume of the outcry justify the stand?

If there are many us, thousands, in fact, and we all shout at once, does that mean that now we own the truth?

When people shout at us, we’re tempted to shout back. Shouting feels powerful and we want to match our opposition power to power. Which would be fine if our call was to wage war as the world does.

But, it’s not.

Our call is to be like Christ. Our call, loved ones, as Paul cautioned us, is to “be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” (Colossians 4:5)

This week, women who are vehemently pro-choice are “shouting” their abortions through social media. It would be natural to shout back. To try to shout over them. To attempt to shout them down. To sarcastically or smugly match their shouts with counter-shouts. To loudly condemn them as shouters and shout our faith back in their faces.

That doesn’t sound like Jesus to me.

Jesus stood facing Pilate in the hours before His crucifixion. I’m sure He could hear the shouts of the crowd. “Crucify Him. Crucify Him.”

Now, Jesus’ voice is like the “roar of many waters.” He created the wind and waves, fire, tornadoes, hurricanes, and volcanic explosions. If shouting makes a person right, if shouting wins the day, if shouting proved the point, He’d have shouted the crowd to smithereens.

Instead, He stood silent before His captors. He answered Pilate simply, quietly, and with a calm that displayed true strength.

There’s a story in 1 Kings 19: 11b-12 about Elijah meeting with God. As Elijah waited for Him, this is what transpired: “And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.”

God was in the whisper.

Truth doesn’t have to shout. Righteousness can be found in a whisper. God can quietly reign.

It’s tempting to shout back.

Jesus was always presented with temptations to use the weapons of this world. Satan and the Pharisees came at Him a thousand different ways trying to rattle His cage enough to get Him to fight on their field.

He stood strong and in that quiet stand demonstrated how true power conducts itself. It doesn’t fall for strength-draining diversions, it doesn’t walk into set ups, it doesn’t let the enemy determine its agenda.

In the face of women shouting their abortions today, I thought about the prayer of Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

And I thought, where there is shouting, let me whisper truth.

There is no light at the end of the abortion tunnel even when people march that way with singing, shouting, bright lights, celebrities, politicians, crowds of company, and catchy hashtags. Abortion leads to death and death is nothing to shout about – ever.

But, we are called to be wise in the way we act. We do not follow a shouting God. He doesn’t have to. His truth stands strong in the whisper.

Choose life, she whispered, and those seeking truth heard it loud and clear.