One day after spending time with a neighbor who indicated a desire to study the Bible, my pastor at that time expressed a negative spirit about the way I went about it. It left me speechless, because it had taken a great deal of courage for me to venture into what was new territory for me. It seems like for some reason when I wanted to talk about Jesus to the unsaved my mouth would feel like it was paralyzed shut. Have you ever felt like God wanted you to say something, but it just wouldn’t come out of your mouth? I was reading in Luke 1 about a man called Zechariah that God had sent his angel Gabriel to announce the good news that they would be having a baby boy. Zechariah just could not believe what he was told, because he and his wife were already very old. The angel then told him that he would be unable to speak until their baby was born, as a sign that this was truly a message from God. From that moment till John the Baptist was born Zechariah’s mouth was paralyzed. He had to use sign language to communicate with people.
“When he did come out, he could not speak…”
Luke 1:22
There are different things in life that cause us to become speechless. Sometimes like Zechariah, it may be for spiritual reasons. At other times we may be involved in a serious accident and don’t know how to process what happened to us.
We may feel like our mouth is paralyzed when someone we least expect it from, begins to swear and degrade us. One day after I had completed a small job for one of my cabinet shop customers, a call came for me to stop by their house to pick up their check for payment. After arriving, the man began calling me names I had never been called before to my face. He yelled at me, saying that I had taken advantage of them as seniors by over charging them, even though he had an itemized description of materials and labor on his statement. I calmly told him he could adjust the charges if they felt taken advantage of. Yet the man continued to cuss at me in a very angry tone instead of adjusting the bill. Feeling shaken and totally speechless with what was happening, I climbed into my truck and headed down the road with the man still visibly agitated and flailing his hands in the air at me. At the time, I feared he may be mentally challenged and have a gun to shoot at me. This was a wealthy man whom I later discovered had taken advantage of other businessmen like myself. It brought up feelings of failure and a much deeper appreciation for the rest of my wonderful customers!
There are other times when my inadequate feelings about myself keep me from giving people the affirmation they have coming. At other times fear of rejection may keep us from talking to people about their relationship with God. Jesus often would come to his disciples with the words, “fear not”. May God help us to go beyond our fears to speak out the words that bring healing, hope and happiness to those who so desperately need to hear it from us. Sign language is one way to communicate, but words are so much easier to understand. When Zechariah’s son was born, God gave him back his speech again. Let’s not let our fears paralyze our mouth.
Al Yoder
5/14/2011
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