A lot has changed since then.
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| "That loud thing" around my neck (I apologize for a selfie) |
As I walked into church yesterday morning, I was greeted by two nice men, both of whom I've seen frequently welcoming people and holding the doors for them. I was a bit early and the only one entering, but they each swung open a door, so I remarked, "Oh, wow, I get two doors opened for me today!"
They both made kind remarks, but one of them ended with, "Well, I guess it must be because of that loud thing around your neck!"
I just laughed and said, "I love fun scarves."
As I listened to the message in church on following Jesus in the way we live our lives, one thing kept standing out to me: be loud. The pastor didn't use that exact wording, but he was talking about showing love to others, and I couldn't get the notion out of my head that the way we live should be loud like my scarf.
Because love should be loud.
When I was in sixth grade, I got quite a few detentions. Now, just to clarify, I am not a troublemaker. In fact, I get near-anxiety attacks if I think I'm breaking rules or getting in trouble for something. However, I tend to talk a lot, and the detentions I received were the result of not closing my mouth when I was supposed to. I guess I just had a lot to say, and my math teacher didn't always appreciate my need to express myself verbally. Apparently I was living a bit too loudly in math.
And in detention you weren't allowed to talk. At all. It was torturous, though I talked a lot in my head and narrated all that was going on around me kind of like people do in television shows. Unfortunately, though, there really wasn't a ton to discuss other than the boy next to me who was trying to pick apart a pencil with his hands, which were covered in the residue of the Doritos I had seen him eating right before we were ushered in to the walls of our punishment.
There was also the time I got a detention with the guy I had a huge crush on in middle school. I quickly found out that detention is not necessarily the best place to try to capture the attention of someone you wish were your sweet baboo. You can't talk to each other, and when he's so busy unsuccessfully trying to make his Snicker's wrapper into a triangle for paper football, you might begin to rethink how you'd like to spend your afternoons with after-school activities other than suffering. Yet I just couldn't seem to hold my tongue enough.
But I know there have been a lot of opportunities I've encountered in life where I had the choice to be loud in the name of love or to sit back and keep quiet. Sadly, I haven't always made the right decision in those instances. There weren't even detentions at risk, yet I didn't take advantage of opportunities to be loud for Jesus.
Living loudly like that doesn't mean making a huge spectacle of things—it simply means being bold and having fearless attitudes in the way we show love to people. Even some of the quietest people have huge actions that drown out the rambunctious noise flying in from all directions. I've read quotes from Mother Teresa, though I don't think I've ever actually heard any of her sound bites, and she seemed like she would have been a rather soft-spoken woman. But, man, her love sure was loud.
One quote of hers I've seen quite a bit is, "We can do no great things—only small things with great love." Not everyone is going to change the entire world, but you can change certain people's lives with love—and by doing so loudly.
Because great love is loud love.
I may find myself in situations where I talk too much or am asked to lower my voice, and I may have clothes that stand out because of their bold colors or the fact that I live by the motto, "Anything matches if you wear it with confidence," but those things don't really matter. What matters is that love is loud. And it's never too late if you've been shy and quiet in the past.
You might even smile as you think, "A lot has changed since then."
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