Saved to Speak

 

The high monotone voice rang out clearly (although not overly loudly) in the small cafeteria of the Rehab hospital. It was not something you could ignore, especially sitting just one table over. The small woman in the “scooter” wheelchair thanked God for the blessings of the day. She asked Jesus (yes, she actually mentioned the name) for blessings on her family and the families of all who were at the Rehab. She prayed for health and safety, and**gasp** she thanked Jesus for His very presence with her.

AMEN! I almost shouted. Her daughter, or perhaps her granddaughter, sitting at the round table with her and several others tried to shush the elder, but she would not be silenced. “I am not going to stop praying,” she argued gently, yet firmly. “Don’t you remember when I couldn’t say anything? No, I am not going to give up my praying.” Again I wanted to shout Amen, but again I did not. What was I afraid of? That they would catch me eavesdropping? That others would think of me in a bad light? So what?

What a testimony this woman had. She had been healed by her Creator’s amazing power and grace, and realized her purpose and mission. Who knows what had originally silenced her, but Jesus restored her speech to testify of Him, and she answered the call, giving credit where credit is due.

I understood the daughter’s (or granddaughter’s) evident embarrassment and/or concern, especially these days. One might fear that someone in the room would claim offense and perhaps have the older woman removed from the room, or the hospital. Not too far of a stretch, considering all the political and anti-Christian “correctness” that is such a high concern these days.

But I remember the days when I couldn’t say anything either. Oh, it was not because there a physical incapacity. Our enemy uses many avenues to hold us in bondage and keep us from becoming what our Father designs us for. The enemy kept me silenced emotionally and spiritually, bound with fear, in insecurity, anger and oblivion, until Jesus came on the scene and set me free. I was afraid of my own shadow, until Jesus cast His shadow over me with His presence and saved me from myself. I can understand the scooter-bound woman’s question, “Don’t you remember when I couldn’t say anything?! I remember.

When we realize that we have indeed been set free, and by Whom we have been delivered, we can not be silenced. We know how it feels to be helpless and bound by forces beyond our control. We know how it feels to be set free, and it is that type of knowing that moves the delivered to wash the feet of their Master with their tears (see Luke 7:37-47), the victorious to dance in the streets (see 2 Samuel 6:12-19), the healed to return and bow the knee (Luke 17:11-16), the forgiven to go and sin no more (John 8:1-11), the forgotten to beg to be taken along (Mark 5:18; Luke 8:38), the formerly tongue-tied to thank Jesus loudly and clearly for His very presence, and the prodigal to come to his senses and return to the Father. It is never too late.

I am thankful for the woman of God in the scooter chair rolling through the halls of the Rehab hospital in Las Cruces, praying to her Savior with confidence and assurance, before many other people who are in helpless and perhaps hopeless places in their lives. They need to hear the Good News, and I needed to hear her convicting boldness, and remember. While we might be inhibited about going from room to room to spread cheer and hope, she simply takes opportunity in the halls, as she is rolling by, or in the dining room or in the Sun room, to talk to her Jesus-- out loud.

And the question is not- will she be shushed…but will we?