Don’t Give Your Voice To Anyone

The subject of this writing has stirred about in my mind for a number of days and as I kept repeating to myself, “Don’t give your voice to anyone,” it took on a musical quality.  I wondered where the music came from and finally remembered the line (Don’t give your heart to anyone) from the popular song, “Save the Last Dance for Me.”

Oh I know that the music's fine

Like sparklin' wine, go and have your fun

Laugh and sing, but while we're apart

Don't give your heart to anyone

"We're not his (Donald J. Trump) defamers," a reporter wrote. "We're just his stenographers.  We let him talk…” So, I’m just being a stenographer as I write what  Mr. Trump said in his acceptance speech last week: “Every day I wake up determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected and abandoned. … These are people who work hard but no longer have a voice,” Trump said. “I am your voice.” 

Others have said the same and promised to speak for us.  “I am your voice.”  Don’t give your voice to anyone!  Not to Donald Trump, not to Hillary Clinton, not to your representative, not to your spouse, not to anyone!  Your voice is uniquely your own.  It is your's to say what you want to say and no one else can say it the way your own, your very own, voice can.   Don't let anyone be your voice for no one else can really be that for you.  Your voice is your very own and I beg you to hang on to it and to use it as only you can.

Why do I say this?  I say it because I have, on occasion, given my voice to another or to some group through the years.  Let me explain.  In the early days of my ministry I gave my voice to a congregation when they suggested I preach only the things they wanted to hear.  For a number of years, I gave my voice away to the religious denomination to which I belong, allowing them to speak for me and proclaim things I did not support.  I gave my voice to my vocational colleagues, permitting them to speak for me and pronounce things I could not tolerate.  As a member of a pastoral team I gave my voice away to the senior team member, because my voice was a disturbance to the cause.  There were times as an Air Force Chaplain when I gave my voice away to those who outranked me.  I confess this and I  regret it with all that is within me.  Don’t give your voice to anyone.  Speak your own mind and use your own voice in doing so.

Sunset on the Pacific in Costa Rica