Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, February 9, 2024
They got me!
This past Wednesday morning I was driving toward a restaurant where a couple of other Adventist pastors and I would be meeting. At a stoplight—and I don’t remember exactly where—I saw this billboard sign.
It reminded me of advice a mom or dad might give to a child who’s shouting inside the house. Dictionary.com defines “inside voice” this way: “a modulated, relatively calm voice, considered polite and socially appropriate when speaking indoors, as at home or in school or in an office (opposed to outside voice).”
But this billboard urges me to use my outside voice. Before and after I snapped the photo, I studied the sign carefully, and saw no clue as to who might have sponsored it. If I choose to obey the sign’s command, I assume I’m supposed to shout loudly, but about what?
Well, as I said at the start of this blog, they got me. I broke down and Googled what was on the sign. The search led me to the website you’ll find at the link at the end of this blog. As you’ll see, it represents an organization whose basic concept is expressed by its founder, all the way down at the bottom of the site’s home page, in these words: “We are done using our inside voice,” she says. “It’s time to use our OUTSIDE VOICE. We encourage each to keep learning, pushing, and fighting for a more just and diverse nation.”
Anyway, I’ll give you the link in a minute. As you can imagine, a lot of the issues this site—and the people who support it—champion are most likely controversial, which is why it’s most often easier to whisper these issues in one’s “inside voice.”
But there’s a time to speak out about the issues that really matter. And the Bible, of course, is our guide to what those issues are. There are many (and some agree with this website’s concerns). But a major one is Jesus’ return. Matthew 24 (and 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15) talk about how the Second Coming itself will be loud, ringing with archangel voices and trumpet blasts.
First, here’s the link to the “outside voice” people, and I’ll follow that with a link to what the Bible says about Jesus’ return and how to get ready.
https://useyouroutsidevoice.co/
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/second-coming-jesus-christ