Find your voice

I approached writing this blog this morning with dread in my heart.

The nations judged.

Really? I have to talk about this again? How many times have we covered the judgement of Israel’s surrounding nations? Over and over and over again.

Then I stopped to realise that I would probably feel very different if I was one of the ones living through all that the people of God had lived through. I would want to know that God was in charge. That He knew what He was doing. That He was going to hold all these enemies responsible who had taken away all that was precious to me and made my life a living hell. Because it always seems so unfair when evil people seem to get away with what they have done. It adds insult to injury as they say.

So I’m going to try to read this passage with fresh eyes – the eyes of the exploited, the exiled, the abused.

There is hope.

Whatever we are facing now, there is hope.

God has promised restoration.

And judgement. God has promised judgement too.

For God has seen everything that has happened. Everything. He’s seen what they did to His people, His inheritance.

How they scattered His people and divided up His land. How they treated His people as less than human – as slaves and sex objects. How they plundered all the silver and gold and precious treasures. How they sold God’s people into exile.

But a day is coming where everything is going to change. God is going to rouse His people. He’s going to gather them back in.

And He will treat the surrounding nations as they have treated His people.

There is hope.

And what follows is a call to arms. A call to fight back.

Now I’m uncomfortable with arms – that whole ‘Beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears’ thing (Joel 3:10). Maybe there is such a thing as a just war. Maybe God has on occasions called His people to stand up and fight. Literally fight.

Maybe.

It certainly seems to be what He is doing in this passage.

Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare for war!
Rouse the warriors!
Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.  Joel 3:9

I’m not going there and getting into a whole discussion about the rights and wrongs of pacifism. But what I can understand and respond to is the call to stand up. To reach the point where you say ‘I can’t sit and take this any more. It’s time to dig deep and respond with courage. Stand up for what is right. Speak out against what is wrong.’

Life is not about keeping your head below the parapet all the time. Peace is not about looking the other way when injustice is being acted out right in front of your eyes. I’m not condoning violence but I am calling for protest. Lending a voice for those who have no voice.

Let the weakling say,
‘I am strong!’  Joel 3:10

We’re often afraid to speak out. Afraid that we will attract negative attention. Afraid of what people will think. Afraid of causing trouble. Or offence. Afraid that people won’t like us.

But in the light of all that’s going on in our world, God needs His people to find their voice and speak out.

Like Karen de Lange has done. I know Karen. She’s in the same house group as me. Karen is a deep thinker with a strong sense of integrity. And this year, Karen has decided to speak out.

Enough is enough.

In a piece on Medium entitled Finding my voice in 2017, she does just that. Find her voice.

Here’s why it’s taken some time.

I had stood by and watched while, during 2016, hatred found a new voice and a new legitimacy…I saw people in similar situations to me raise their voices against what was happening — and I saw them vilified for daring to speak out…I didn’t dare to join them, because the fear was too great. I was afraid.

She describes how her response to what was going on in the world around her all became too much to hold in any more. How she said ‘I can’t stay silent any more.’ And her husband replied ‘Then don’t.’

And so she has set herself the challenge of once a week publishing a piece that says what she wants to say.

Because I will find my own voice. I will say what I mean, and I will not be silent.

Karen has responded to the call to become strong. To speak out. To find her voice.

Karen’s response to that call is challenge to all of us. Of course, her response is her response, and we will not all turn to writing as she has. But we need to hear the call for ourselves and respond in our own way.

God needs His people to stand up for what is right.

Whatever that looks like for you today.