It is the fate of lockdown. We cannot sing, play or make music together, but if ever there was a chorus that has rung out like a clarion call on Zoom’s sound waves over these COVID times, it has been the unequivocal mantra: ‘You’re on mute.’ We’ve all done it; we’ve all been there – we chat into the void and wonder why there is no sympathy for what we’re saying, but it’s because we’re not using our voice in the right way: to borrow the axiom of yesteryear’s technology, we’ve not ‘adjusted our set.’
Amidst the maelstrom of 2020, now leaking inexorably into ’21, there have been many voices which have vied for attention and a multiplicity of issues, personal and social, have screamed to be heard. But as individuals and communities representing the voiceless in our nation and world, there are times when we might look in the mirror and lament: ‘you’re on mute.’ It is easy to accuse others of being on mute: the government, the councils, the powers that be – we claw for answers to this crisis and claim that ‘they should have spoken earlier.’ And for some of us, maybe as we turn our faces heavenward, our cry might be: ‘Lord, why are you on mute; why don’t you answer? Why are you causing us so much pain?’ At times, the psalmist echoes such sentiments, as in Psalm 28: ‘To you I call, O Lord my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me, for if you remain silent I shall be like those who have gone down to the pit. Hear my cry for mercy as I call for help.’
Pete Greig, author of ‘God on mute’, provided this powerful reflection as he wrestled with this issue: ‘I asked for strength that I might achieve; He made me weak so that I might obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given grace that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I received nothing that I asked for, all that I hoped for. My prayer was answered, I was most blessed.’
To hear, as God hears and to see as God sees, is indeed an ‘adjustment of our set’ – our mindset, our perspective and the way we view the world and ourselves. It could just be that we’re being called to listen in new ways – first to hear the pain within His heart; and then the overflow from this eustachian canal will be to hear the needs on our doorsteps and give them our voice.
AJ Reid Writes 