loud people!

posted on: april 5, 2006

have you ever met anyone who somehow (which despite your best efforts to get to the bottom of it is beyond your ability to understand) speaks louder than everyone else?

there are of course those folks who yell into cell phones...i don't think i need to say anything more about those people because assuredly we have all been accosted by them in coffee shops or airports. then there are those who when at a social engagement can be heard from anywhere in the house or room you are in. i think it has to do with where their voice falls within the frequency range. like there is some magic frequency window which ensures that everyone will hear you. these people usually mean well, but they are all outgoing which doesn't help the cause of the general public or those in attendance at said party.

the people that i would like to bring to our attention are those that speak loudly without actually speaking at a higher volume than the rest of us. it's as if their voices are heard in some sort or weightier (i'm in seminary so i can make up words) fashion. it's the paul and vicki peterson's of the world that i'm talking about. when they speak, you should listen.
these people often times don't speak that much (quantitatively.) but what they do say is usually deep, rich, and filled with wisdom.

here's my theory on this: they live from a different place than the rest of us. we wear so many masks and try to be so many different things that we are not. why, you say? because we are scared shitless of who we might find if we actually look deep into the depths of our souls and hearts where no one is allowed to go...even ourselves. most of us are operating day to day from a place of that is void of authenticity! we are faking it. people like paul and vicki have walked the long difficult road that is the journey of the heart and soul. they have guts to go where a lot of us are not willing to go, and they have been healed.

now i must say...this journey can a kill a person if they go alone. i mean seriously, who among us can look into the depravity of their own human heart and come out alive, or at the very least functioning in any coherent fashion? unfortunately, many "christians" miss this, but i think this is the call of jesus! he is willing to go into the depths of who we are and hold our hand if necessary, and by the power of the cross, heal us and make us whole again. this is hard work because we have to face ourselves in the light of what has happened to us by virtue of eden, but that is the beauty of the gospel. that jesus has come to give back what we have sabotaged...life as it was meant to be.
i think people that speak loudly (and again i don't mean volume) live from this reality. there is a reality of authenticity that exists in the words and lives of these people because they actually know who they are.

may it be said of me someday that i speak loudly. that my words and life are actually worth listening to. that i learn to live from a different place where i stop faking it, allow jesus to show me who i actually am and who i was meant to be.