When Your Voice Goes Quiet

Voices are a great part of our identity. They reflect who we are. Our voice can hint at how old we are, our gender, even what part of the country we’re from. Our voice signals things about our personality, our emotional well-being, or betray us when we insist we’re “fine”.

Most of us know what it feels like to “lose” our voice. When allergy season hits or we’ve screamed too loud for our team, we wake up the next day, open our mouth and no sound comes out. Suddenly we can’t communicate and we’re wishing we’d paid better attention to that one week of sign language in elementary school.

But sometimes our voices go quiet for deeper reasons.

Poet and author Maya Angelou did not speak for five years when she was a child. It was a self-imposed silence that began after a traumatic experience caused her to believe her words had caused terrible things to happen. Through this time, she dove into books and art, alone in that quiet place, until a wonderful teacher helped her to see that poetry was a way to journey back to expressing herself again.

She eventually wrote the beautiful book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In it, we come to understand that a caged bird sings to cope with its captivity and to express its longing to be free. Even within its cage, it finds ways to express what is deep inside.

Many of us lose our voice in a more metaphoric way. We don’t know how to express ourselves, we can’t put words to fear or the heartache that sits deep within us. We may have been told our voice causes problems for others so we just shut down. And, after years of unease, we may even become afraid of what our voice will sound like if we do let it out again. Will it crack? Be too loud? Too shrill?

As Pastor Jay has taken us through what it looks like to walk in “the wilderness”, he is now showing us how to come out of it. We can sing, like that caged bird, and we can know God hears us.

“I call to God, I cry to God to help me. From his palace he hears my call; my cry brings me right into his presence— a private audience!”  
Psalm 18:6

Life brings challenges. Sickness, loss, despair, anger, betrayal. We can lose our voice.

But no cry is too small, too insignificant, or too buried in the noise of life for God to hear. When we cry out to God in our distress, we invite His presence into our pain.

“Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you.”  
Psalm 34:17

Your voice matters. Even if it feels shaky. Even if it has been silent for a long time. God is listening.


Reflection Questions:
• Have there been seasons when you felt like you lost your voice? What caused that silence - fear, disappointment, exhaustion, something else?
• What would it look like for you to cry out honestly to God right now, without filtering or polishing your words?

• If God is truly listening and responding, how might that change the way you use your voice, with Him and with others?


Watch Sermon Here