Lately I have been thinking about times when there are no words.
I have opened this page up to write a blog almost daily for the last couple of weeks, but there have been no words.
I mean, sure there are words running around in my head, but nothing coherent or formed that I could put down.
Life is busy. Life is crazy. Life is wonderful and hard all at once.
I have been re-watching Dawson’s Creek. Yes, I know how pathetic that sounds. Mike and I watched the entire series when it aired on television (don’t take away his man-card, we were newlyweds and I wanted to watch it) and while scrolling through Hulu a few weeks back I saw that it was among the offerings of shows available to me with the touch of a button. In a moment of weakness, I pushed play.
One of the things that I have (again) noticed about this show is the massive amount of words that pour out of these (supposedly) teenage kids. Always talking, analyzing and waxing eloquent about this, that, and the other circumstances in their lives. Rarely do you see any of them in a place where they have no words.
And while part of me thinks that is no where close to reality, another part of me realizes that we often talk too much. But the difference is we talk about nothing, because we have no words to really talk about the hard stuff. We can find lots of words to talk about the stuff that doesn’t much matter. We can talk about the weather, how busy we are in general terms, how we don’t like this or that about home/work/school/church/community, and what our plans our for the weekend. But when it really comes down to it, the words that we need to speak stay unspoken.
When struggling with yet another bout of depression, we don’t speak the words, “help,” to anyone.
When experiencing deep pain and sorrow, we put on a happy face and answer, “fine” when asked how we are doing.
When watching friends go through the pain of divorce, we don’t know what to say, so we say nothing.
When seeing others grieving loss of one kind or another, we allow them to suffer in silence for one reason or another.
When witnessing the downward spiral and loss of faith of a community member, we stay silent.
When observing someone making poor choices, we choose not to talk with them about it.
The thing is, in those times that there are no words, sometimes words are exactly what is needed. Not surface conversation. Not platitudes that make empty promises. But words that acknowledge the truth. Because, you see, something happens when you acknowledge the truth and speak it out.
Healing can begin.
Help can arise.
Hope can be proclaimed.
Comfort can be given.
Faith can be renewed.
Love can be shown.
Let’s work on learning how to speak the words that need to be spoken, the hard words, the words that don’t want to come, and the ones that bring truth, healing, help, hope, comfort, faith and love into our lives and the lives of those around us.