Is Your Heart Craving a Good Word?

Speak truth to us. That was all I could think of while the top-of-the-class teens walked onto the platform and spoke to their graduating class. But instead we heard platitudes.

Follow your dreams.

You’re on the road to success.

Life is just beginning.

Five hundred names were announced and five hundred diplomas passed out. I wondered how many in that crowd had no idea what hope felt like and no strong chains mooring them to Jesus. How many students sat in those chairs with caps on their heads but brokenness in their hearts? Unloved. Misdirected. Scared. Wounded. Ashamed.  Needing their souls to be fed before their feet hit the pavement toward their futures.

Matt and I kept talking about those speeches. Where was the depth? There we sat, with decades of experience hearing people’s sorrows and struggles–too closely acquainted with how much hurt could pile up before a high school diploma ever landed in the hand. Respectfully we listened to these young speakers, secretly wishing someone would pour living words over that gathering of 500 hearts. 

Could someone please pass out loaves and fishes? These people are hungry and have nowhere to go to get food. 

What would we have said to this crowd, if Matt and I could have grabbed the microphone?

You were created, and your Creator never left. He’s right here. He sees all your piled-up hurts, and he cares about you. 

You do not have to walk through life alone. Acknowledge God all along the way, and he will be right there, straightening your path out in front of you. He will be a friend who is closer than a brother.

You can be a light in the darkness. That’s why you matter–whether you manage a Chick-fil-A or build a bridge or weld a pipe or care for children. When everything around you feels broken, with Jesus you can offer wholeness. 

There I sat, next to my preacher husband, thinking about how important words are and how our souls get dry and dusty. It wasn’t only the teens on the floor who needed a rich word spoken over them. This is your reminder to go to church every Sunday, to a place where the Bible is opened and hope pours out of the preacher’s mouth. 

Because we need speeches. Good ones. Life-giving ones.