The Squooshy

There is a loud voice.

Where it began to resonate is difficult to pinpoint. It may have come from a parent…perhaps a Sunday School teacher…or some other well-meaning adult trying to guide us while, unknowingly, echoing other loud voices passed down through generations. Sometimes that loud voice is a frightened inner child doing what it has always done to decipher a confusing and unsettling world. Or, maybe that voice is the Devil himself.

That voice says:

• This will never work
• Look at the evidence; I will fail
• I must hide my flaws; they make me unlovable
• I am not really loved; It’s what I do that they love. I have to earn it
• It’s others around me that people love
• I effed that up. I always eff things up. Why do I suck at this?
• If I don’t let people close, they can’t hurt me
• I am the only person in the world going through this
• Grace is great, but I better work really hard for the right to be called a child of God
• I don’t have needs; I meet needs
• If I have needs, I will be a burden; people don’t love burdens

The Still Small Voice

But the loud voice is not the only voice; there is another. This one is quiet and soft. Its message is subtle; its delivery is gentle. When we are flailing and storming about, the still, small voice is difficult to hear.

Thankfully, that voice is persistent. It is a relentless unsettling in the quiet of the night that whispers—“don’t be fooled.” This voice doesn’t bait us or accuse us. It does not make us feel unworthy. It soothes us like our mothers did when we felt like the world was too much. The still, small voice says:

• I know you are scared, but there is another way (2 Tim 1:7)
• You don’t have to be afraid; I’m with you (Jsh 1:9)
• I see your heart (1 Sam 16:7); I knew you before you were born (Ps 139:16)
• Don’t be discouraged. I will help you (Isa 41:10)
• You don’t have to do this alone; there is healing power in community (Jas 5:16)
• I have plans for you (Jer 29:11); you are going to do amazing things (Eph 2:10)
• I know everything about you (Ps 139:3) and there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you. My love has no conditions (Rom 8:38-39)
• You don’t have to pretend. You don’t have to be flawless. Be the you that I made you to be (1 Pet 5:6-7)
• My grace is a gift just for you; you don’t have to work so hard (Eph 2:8-9)
• Stop thinking about your past mistakes; to me, they don’t even exist (2 Cor 5:17)
• I know that your heart is broken. I will come and stay with you and your broken heart (Psa 34:18)
• I will comfort you. When you feel ready, will you let my healing love flow through you and comfort someone else when they need it? (2 Cor 1:3-5)

Loud Voice: Be Still

Stop wrestling. Stop fighting. Tell that loud voice to shut up. You don’t have to listen to liars.