Helpful Or Just Noise?
“It has been noted that actions speak louder than words. Truth is, I have found that during many situations in life, words are just noise… and actions are the ONLY things that speak.” ~ Steve Maraboli
Yesterday, while driving home, I was listening to public radio. A woman originally from North Korea was being interviewed. She made her way from North Korea to China (being sold by human traffickers) to South Korea and, ultimately, to the United States. As she shared her story, she was asked about her thoughts regarding the upcoming peace talks between North and South Korea. She expressed her fears and concerns about a great many issues and then said something very interesting and, I believe, very profound.
She stated that the media, by and large, has been of no help. Living in a free society here in the United States, she wonders why more is not said about addressing atrocities in her native North Korea or in other deeply troubled parts of the world. She stated that the media, as she sees it, does more to poke fun at leaders or skirts around issues instead of using the power of the free press to address real need. She said that the media was not a helpful voice as much as it was just a bunch of noise causing more confusion that helping.
I thought about that a lot. Of course, I also applied that to our own Church and the way we live our faith. I wonder how often we are not the real voice of change and hope that people need to hear but, instead, merely noisy distraction. Do the words that we say have any true impact or do we merely pay lip service to issues? If lip service is all we pay, we are not doing the job that Jesus left for us to do.
Jesus was never a lip service type of person. As a matter of fact, there were several times in the Gospels where he called out people who merely paid God lip service. Jesus was a man of action. He told His followers that they might have to die for what they believed, for what they said, and for what they did. Jesus indicated that the world might not accept what they had to say. But Jesus stated that we needed to say it anyway.
God has given us a mission. Jesus has given us His message. It is up to communicate it in such a way as to promote change for the good rather than clutter up the world with meaningless noise.
FAITH ACTION: Examine what you are planning to do today and the motive for doing so. Will you make a difference or merely contribute to the noise of the world?