The reason I’m talking about this, the reason I care about this topic, is because I see people go into hiding, taking their God-given contribution, and covering it up because it isn’t good enough. Like Gideon hiding in a winepress, or Gideon making a statue to himself, both are from insecurity…When you know whose you are and who you are, you don’t need to make you the topic anymore, because you’re free.
Fly your own flag. For years people say to me, “Hey Tim, can you tell the congregation this or that?” I say, “This is your flag. Do you mind telling them?” “Oh, Tim, nobody cares about what I say. But if YOU say it, they’ll listen.” WOW. So. Who told you your voice carries no weight? Who taught you that nobody will listen to you? That your voice doesn’t matter? Somewhere along the way you’ve been lied to.
First we copy, then we personalize. We find our voice in a similar way to how we learn to speak. First we copy others. We make the sounds they make. We learn by rote.
Rudiments. That’s how a musician learns at first. A drummer will play what’s called, “rudiments,” over and over. Rudiments are specific exercises designed to teach a whole host of skills that are not readily apparent at the time. Skills like foot-hand independence or right-left hand alternating. This helps the mind detach from the predictable hiccups that will happen if you drum efficiently in alternating patterns. The rudiments free up the drummer to focus on expressiveness, because the underlying skill and control are already established.
Pianists learn scales which in themselves are boring to practice, but later are the building blocks or syntax and grammar used to build sentences and phrases.
What I’m saying is that part of learning the rudiments of life is to copy those who do it well…and then once we can copy their thing well, we can modify. I heard that Picasso said,
“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.”
Realism and surrealism. First Picasso learned how to draw and paint in the school of realism. Then he used that ability to express his own inner vision. He didn’t paint like that because he wasn’t “good enough to do it the right way.” It actually looks how he wants it to look. His skills aren’t hindering his vision. That’s the meaning of learning the rules like a pro. If you don’t have the tools and skills established, you can’t be expressive. Copying others or learning to work within established convention is a part of developing the rudiments that can then be used for expressiveness. We copy our heroes. But then we also make changes. We adapt. And we combine. Here’s another Picasso quote:
“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”
Plagiarism vs Innovation. If you claim another person’s work is yours and pass it off as such, that’s plagiarism. But if you copy from 10 different people’s work and combine it in a new way, that’s innovation. And that work of combining the things you have collected and bringing them forth to offer the world is going to be as unique to you as your fingerprint or your face. Others would have combined those exact same influences differently.
The Preacher Voice. I remember seasons of life when my preaching voice didn’t sound like me. That was more true when I was 19 than now. A preacher voice is now something I don’t want to do. But back then it was what my favorite preachers were doing, a-heh. Yasss! Somebody say amen-a heh because it’s friday, but Sunday’s coming! I didn’t realize I was putting on a persona. You know. Lot’s of enthusiastic and authoritative martyrs declaration passion and the energy of a man about to pop. Nothing wrong with energy if it’s who you actually are! My point is finding your voice is a process. Jesus said that our words come from the overflow of the heart, so what we’re really talking about is the process of walking with God and learning how to become who God created us to be and do what God created us to do with a sense of gratitude for his love and design.
Comparison is fun and helpful if you compare in order to appreciate differences in how God designed us. But comparison can kill if we use it as a weapon for demolition.
I’ve heard people who simultaneously defend their right to be themselves, and at the same time rail against those who aren’t like them because they’re stuck in an unhealthy insecurity using comparison to invalidate. Insecurity is often loud and defensive. And strict.
“There is a right way to do things.” I worked for a man who used to say that. “There IS a right way to do things.” Guess whose way he believed was right? Truth is there are many ways to do most things, and some of them are more effective than others. Some things are facts, some things are opinions, and some things are simply cultural norms masquerading as right and wrong without divine backing. When we start to pull the thread, it comes undone in the light of God.
Diversity and Unity. It’s hard to live with a “there is a right way to do things” person in community. Because the hallmark of community is to value diversity and to include and appreciate those who aren’t like us. Paul used the metaphor of the human physical body to express the church being comprised of people who aren’t at all alike. We have different strengths, aptitudes, skills, spiritual gifts, personalities, hangups, even convictions and cultures, and yet, yet! Jesus fills each one of us and connects us not only to himself, but to each other.
You are a part of me, and I need you, and you need me, even though we are totally different.
Conformity and Belonging. Often the desire for acceptance and belonging and community is so strong that conformity becomes alluring in order to gain it. Uniformity is counterfeit unity. Conformity squishes conscience. And passive aggressive stuffing or constant relational divorces take the place of connection and covenant strong enough to engage with healthy conflict. What I’m saying is that oftentimes to fit in and find acceptance we knowingly or unknowingly learn to silence our voice.
Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 12 is don’t disqualify others, don’t disqualify yourself, don’t try to be somebody else, don’t view your uniqueness as a curse. Do honor others, do bring your best to the table for the sake of others, do be yourself, do view everybody’s uniqueness as a blessing, including your own uniqueness. Unity is not uniformity. A concert isn’t conformity but harmony. We’re different because we need many things. We’re different by design. Be yourself, everybody else is already taken.
Most of us are really good at recognizing voices. In fact, voices are so unique that people who are good at emulating tone and phrasing and cadence are viewed as having mastered a very difficult and rare skill.
Do I sound like that? Do you remember hearing your voice recorded and thinking, “Do I actually SOUND like that!? Oh no!!!! Some of us just wish we were less like us.
But Saul’s armor will not only wear us down, do I have to point out that it wasn’t even working for SAUL? That story of David and Goliath is filled with wonderful and deep truth. But to simplify a few lessons, love God, trust God, do what’s right even when it’s hard, and be yourself. You as a copy of someone else would not win that fight. You as you, who you are in Christ, has the backing of heaven. Ask yourself, what’s my lion and my bear? What are my private battles that I’m called to win out of intimacy with the Lord? If you win those battles, what you used becomes your sling and stones. And that sling and stones becomes what you have to bring to the public space.
We never really learn where we fit in until we learn how we’re called to stand out. And you can’t learn that until you go after integrity in the secret place.
Each bird has its voice. Can you identify these birds just by their voice? And it has a range of songs it is meant to sing. Your voice paired with your song is something that will speak with the “anointing” or “aroma” of heaven.
People have life songs. People have certain truths that are their property in a way. They live them, and they understand them and they have authority to give them away to others. That doesn’t mean that you need to only talk about that one thing. Not at all.
When inner and outer voices match, we have a winner. Your voice is your authentic personality and beliefs shared in such a way that the inner voice and the outer voice sound the same. And your song is that lion and that bear you’ve mastered and now the Lord’s given you a song of praise. Again, your voice + your song = something special and powerful.
Sometimes we disqualify our voice because of what we don’t know and what we can’t do and what we haven’t experienced. That’s not helpful. What do you know? What can you do? What have you experienced? If you’ve walked with Jesus only one week, that’s one week of walking with Jesus that qualifies you to be a living witness to others of who he is. We’re called to be witnesses, not lawyers. And that’s saying that your voice doesn’t have to prove anything. It needs simply to be a reference point for other travelers on the journey.
We’re not talking about ego. We’re not talking about self in service of selfishness. We’re not trying to say that you’re the good news. But you alive in Christ, on your journey of love have goodness he put in you, and he intends it to make a mark on the world.
Dale on Identity Theft. When Dale Mast was with us he had Carl come up and asked for his wallet. He said that to really steal from carl he wouldn’t steal his credit cards and cash. If Carl can still prove he’s carl he can cancel the cards and withdraw money from his bank. But if Dale steals the keys and the license then Carl has to break into his car and jump it to drive home, and he has to break into his own house. He can’t even access what’s actually his without his identity. Dale told us that the devil is into identity theft because our authority in Christ is tied to our identity in Christ, and CHRIST IS POWERFUL, CHRIST IS LORD. Our power, our authority, even our sense of our value and worth, is intimately connected to Christ. So that’s where the enemy of souls shoots his arrows, his war of attrition, his strongholds of shame, comparison, woundedness, despair, resentments, and bitter victim thinking. Your real life is hid with Christ in God and you can’t find the real you without discovering Christ.
New Doing, New Thinking, New Being. Sometimes learning from Jesus how to do things the kingdom way is how the thinking and being in the world changes. In other words, being Jesus’ learner in training, is a process of doing what he says before it comes all the way from deep down. The way to move things from the head into the heart is usually through the hands. If trust is strong enough to move us to action, then action over time will usually rewire the synapses and the heart follows the treasure. What gets your time and attention gets your affection and connection. Yes, I rhyme sometime.
Heidi Baker is hilarious. She talked about showing up to talk at a conference and all these professional teacher types were there with well researched and rehearsed notes and quotes and she had nothing but her willingness to go up on stage and see what God might want to do moment to moment as she was totally vulnerable before the Lord and the people. But she was overwhelmed with shame and comparison and inadequacy. She thought, “I need notes and quotes too!!!” She never got them. That isn’t Heidi. And what we love about Heidi is her weirdness. And we’re all weird. People are only normal until you get to know them.
Originals are priceless. Heidi was praying over us in the crowd and kept saying over and over, “Originals are priceless, copies are worthless!” Wow! Think about that! Starry Night, by Van Gogh is worth 100 million dollars! I can buy a print of it online for about $50 bucks. And if you’re saying, “Yeah, but I’m no Van Gogh.” Then consider that the worth is estimated by the market value, and it’s clear that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have appraised your worth as the highest price.
If you abdicate your voice, you neglect your purpose, and you waste your life.
“The Accidental Creative” gives us 10 Questions to help us recognize our voice…
- What angers you?
- What makes you cry?
- What have you mastered?
- What gives you hope?
- What did you want to be when you were a kid?
- If you had all the money and time in the world, what would you do?
- What, if it happened, would blow your mind? Relationships, travel, business, ministry, etc?
- What platform do you already have?
- What change would you like to see in the world?
- If you had one day left, how would you spend it?
Finding your voice is a lifelong journey of learning, experimenting, and journeying. I’m still finding mine. Jeremy Miller and I often wish we had the other’s voice. But that’s silly. And in our better moments we just enjoy and admire each other without disqualifying ourselves.