Silent and Silenced Too Soon

Thanks to the pandemic, and other life issues, these past few years have silenced too many voices. It’s eerily silent.

Some of them way too soon.

If you’ve not lost someone in your life, then you are probably reading this from Mars. These past 30 months have taught me that life is precious. Yes, I know where I started my counting from. No, I don’t have to revisit the past to understand what I’m talking about.

These times are real. Potent. Viral. Scary.

One pastor told me years ago, “Don’t go to the grave without telling your story.” In other words, write your life’s story and message into a form that will last long after you’re gone. It doesn’t have to be your Last Will and Testament, but there are some documents from hundreds of years ago that were exactly what I’m talking about. A Life Story.

Some of my treasured books come from many who are no longer voiced in my life. The only way I “hear” them is to “read them.”

Your life is a story. To paraphrase another message from a contact of mine (Ralph Marston):

You’re the world’s leading expert when it comes to your own life…
so tell someone about what your life has been all about.

The fact of life is that we all die.

If not someone your age, it’s the future generations that you have the opportunity to share your story so the next generation will have answers they could not possibly have any other way.

There’s no telling how many times I wished I had sat down with my grandparents and asked them about their growing up years, life challenges, how they overcame, and what they would want to do differently if only they had known. What kind of fashions affected them? Music? Entertainment?

I barely remember my great-grandparents. They married young! Ask me, and I’ll tell you all about it!

Before my maternal great-granddad died, he told my mom that the angels were at the foot of the bed, ready to take him home. What a life he must have led! Born in 1888, and part of the early Pentecostal movement that swept through Texas due to the Azusa Street Revival. World Wars. Horse and Buggy and no telephone to the bustling world of technology. Spanish Flu. Great Depression. Name it. They went through it.

Are we any different? Now that we’ve had the pandemic, we’ve had some of the same challenges of 100+ years ago. Back then, publishing a story was often as simple as writing your Last Will and Testament, and filling out the Family Bible. Today? Social media, ebooks, and simple publishing tools make it a “no brainer!” So, I’m publishing my book this year. Why wait for it to get any easier?

Don’t Put It Off

Don’t put off the chance to share your life before you are gone. I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it here again. Don’t leave journals behind full of details you cannot unravel to those who are left with your secrets. If it’s a secret…don’t write it down to be found. If you have a joyous or essential story to tell, then share it loudly.

Think about it from the Apostle Paul’s output. Had he not written all those letters, we would know so much less about the early church and the spread of Christianity. Most were probably written from prison. Aren’t we thankful he was imprisoned?

When you pick up a translated copy of philosophers or scientists from ages gone by, you realize how much they added to the dialogue of human knowledge.

Learning to write I’ve been told to create an avatar of the person I’m writing my story for. Of course, there are so many people I cannot imagine a single person, but there are several out there I hope to share my story with.

Don’t Be Silent!