Speak Life: You Never Know How Long Your Words Will Live

Today, two songs came on the radio back-to-back. And I don’t think I was supposed to miss the connection. The first was Chandler Moore’s God I’m Just Grateful. I know the song has been around for a while, but lately it has become one of those songs for me....You know the kind🤭. The one you’ve heard before, but suddenly you’re not just listening to it anymore; you’re feeling every word🤣.

"I’m Okay If You Think I’m Out of My Mind"

There’s a part toward the end of God I’m Just Grateful where Chandler basically says he’s okay if people think he’s out of his mind because he’s just that grateful to God. That part gets me Every. Single. Time.

Because when I look back over my life, that has kind of been my story. I’ve always loved Jesus loudly. Not perfectly....Definitely not perfectly, but genuinely.

My relationship with God has never just been something I do on Sunday morning.

It has shaped how I think, how I make decisions, how I raise my kids, how I run my business, how I handle the hard things, how I celebrate the good things, how I understand who I am, and throughout my life, people have made fun of me for it.

When Faith Became the Punchline

I actually write about some of this in my book. When I was younger, my faith became something people joked about.

In high school, there was even a joke in the yearbook about me being on the cover of “Nun Weekly.” At the time, maybe everyone thought it was harmless; maybe I even laughed along. That’s what we do sometimes when something hurts, and we don’t quite know what to do with it yet. We laugh, we shrug, we pretend it didn’t matter, and then twenty-some years later, you realize: You still remember it. Funny how words do that🤔.

And Then, We Speak Life

Right after Chandler Moore, TobyMac’s Speak Life came on. I have loved that song for years. The entire message behind it is something I believe so deeply: Our words have power!!!!

We can encourage someone who is barely hanging on and never even know it. We can tell someone we believe in them at the exact moment they’ve stopped believing in themselves.

We can inspire, we can comfort, we can make someone laugh, and we can completely change the direction of someone’s day with a few words, but sometimes I think we forget something. The opposite is true, too.

Our words can hurt, and sometimes they stay.

That song hit differently today because of something that happened last night.

Someone I’ve known for most of my life posted something on social media that really bothered me. And here's the important part: It wasn’t actually the political opinion that bothered me.

People can disagree with me. Truly, you can vote differently than I do. You can believe differently than I do. You can worship differently than I do or not worship at all; I don’t need everyone around me to think exactly like I think. What bothered me was the way people were being talked about. It was mocking, dismissive, and it caught me off guard because of who it came from.

Disagreement Wasn’t the Problem

Then there was another interaction involving a former teacher of mine. Something was said that left me feeling as though my intelligence was being insulted; as though reaching a different conclusion meant I must simply be blindly following someone. That truly bothered me, not because I need anyone to approve of how I vote; I don’t. I am incredibly intentional about the things I believe. I research, I question, I pray, I think, I change my mind when I learn something new, and I don’t blindly follow anyone. But something about that interaction stayed with me, and then suddenly I realized why.

“Nun Weekly”🤯😳😥

This teacher was connected to that same yearbook staff all those years ago.

The one where my faith became the joke. “Nun Weekly.” And suddenly I was thinking about that teenage girl again. Not because these situations were identical; they weren’t. Not because I believe anyone involved was intentionally trying to hurt me; I don’t. It was because the feeling was familiar. You believe the wrong thing. You think the wrong way. There must be something wrong with you if you believe that. And maybe that’s why those two songs hit me so hard today,

because here I am at 40 years old, realizing just how long words can live.

We’ve Forgotten There’s a Person Behind the Screen

We throw words around so casually now, especially online. We sit behind screens and say things about entire groups of people that most of us would probably never say if one of those people were sitting across the table from us. We label people: Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal, Christian, Atheist, Smart, Stupid, Educated, Uneducated, Right, Wrong, and somewhere in all those labels, we forget:

There is a human being on the other side of that screen. There is a story you don’t know; there are experiences you weren’t there for; there are prayers you never heard; there are battles you never saw, and there may be wounds your words just landed directly on without you ever realizing they were there.

Words Live Longer Than We Think

Somebody made a joke when I was a teenager, and I still remember it. Decades later. I STILL think about that 🤯 That's powerful and honestly, it’s convicting.

Because this cannot only be about what other people say; it has to make me think about what I say too.

If I know how deeply words can affect someone, then I have a responsibility to be careful with mine. I'm going to get it wrong sometimes; I'm going to speak when I should have listened; I'm going to say something too quickly; I'm going to let emotion get ahead of wisdom; we all will, but I never want being convinced that I am right to become permission to make another human being feel small.

We Can Disagree Without Destroying Each Other

We can disagree without degrading each other; we can challenge ideas without attacking intelligence; we can stand firmly in what we believe without mocking someone who believes differently, and as Christians especially, I think we have to remember that.

Our job was never to win every argument; we are supposed to look different, we are supposed to love differently, we are supposed to speak differently. We are supposed to speak life.

Maybe Being Misunderstood Is Okay

Maybe that’s why Chandler Moore’s song gets me the way it does. Because the older I get, the more comfortable I am becoming with being misunderstood. People are allowed to think my faith is too much; they are allowed to think I’m too outspoken about Jesus, are allowed to disagree with how I live, are allowed to misunderstand me, and they can even think I’m out of my mind. Because the teenage girl who once felt embarrassed for loving Jesus that loudly has grown into a woman who realizes: Loving Him was never the thing she needed to be embarrassed about. I’ve spent enough of my life worrying about other people’s voices; I’m learning to listen more closely to His.

God, I’m Just Grateful

After everything He has carried me through…After everything He has taught me…

After every time I’ve wandered, and He has pursued me anyway…God, I’m just grateful.

And maybe that’s the lesson in those two songs finding me back-to-back today.

Be grateful enough that other people’s words don’t define you. And be loving enough to make sure yours don’t destroy someone else.

Speak life because you never know how long your words might live.

Reflection

What words are you still carrying? Maybe they were spoken yesterday. Maybe they were spoken twenty years ago. Maybe the person who said them doesn’t even remember saying them, but you remember exactly how they made you feel.

Have those words taken up more space in your heart than they deserve? Have someone else’s words somehow become louder than what God says about you?

Now turn the question around. What words are you leaving with other people?

When you disagree with someone, do your words still reflect Jesus? When you’re frustrated, are you trying to understand, or are you simply trying to be heard?

When someone thinks differently than you do, can you disagree without making them feel small? And when people walk away from an interaction with you, what do your words leave behind? We aren’t going to agree on everything; we were never meant to, but we do get to choose what we put into the world.

So today, ask God to show you where someone else’s words have been taking up too much space in your heart, and then ask Him to show you where your own words might need a little more grace. Speak life, because you may never know how long your words will live in someone else.

Prayer

God,

Thank You for reminding me that my identity has never been determined by what someone else says about me.

Forgive me for the times I’ve allowed another person’s voice to become louder than Yours.

Help me release the words I’ve carried for too long, the comments, the labels, the jokes, the assumptions, and the moments that made me question who You created me to be.

Remind me that other people do not get to name me. You already have.

And God, guard my words too. When I’m angry, give me wisdom before I speak.

When I disagree, give me grace. When I feel misunderstood, keep me from responding from a place of hurt. When it would be easier to mock, criticize, or dismiss someone, remind me that the person on the other side of my words is someone You created and someone You love.

Let my words encourage.

Let them heal.

Let them bring hope.

Let them point people toward You.

Help me be someone who speaks life, even when the world around me chooses otherwise.

And when people misunderstand me, disagree with me, or even think I’m out of my mind because of how deeply I love You, remind me that I don’t have to prove myself.

I just have to keep following You. After everything You’ve done, every place You’ve carried me, and every time You’ve pursued me—God, I’m just grateful.

Amen.