Can't Stop The Noise

I was walking down the hall of my workplace during my  summer student job placement .  Many of the lovely clients we  served there were people who had physical and intellectual disabilities.  One of them who we will call "Guss" said, "Deanna, can you stop making that noise when you walk?!" I don't fault Guss and if I were honest the sound is a little annoying...I mean sometimes I really wish I could just sneak up on people and be all stealthy, ya know?!😊

 My 'noise'  was the sound of my crutches.  Those of you who know me and have shared space with me know what I'm talking about.  "Click, Click, Clack, Clack" Yep, the sound of my mobility aids.  This sound can carry the  happy sound of joy, freedom, dance and Dee presence if you are my momma, friend, brothers or even the beautiful little old ladies at church. There is  another harder- to- swallow side to this sound though.  It is a sound that carries with it a tone of  weakness, vulnerability, need, and dependence.  A tone of suffering, loss and a "things don't have to be this way" cry  is in this sound. Sometimes we are uncomfortable with this sound because we have to face the real ambiguous things that it carries.  

Sometimes the world feels a lot like my friend "Guss."  They may not say it so bluntly like him, but there have been spaces, people, dare I say even Christians (my brothers and sisters) who scream, "Deanna, can you stop making that noise!"It's as if we say stop making noise so we don't have to hear about pain, weakness and vulnerable things. If I'm honest I'll tell you I have listened a lot of my days to those screams.  I've stayed seated and silent.  I've  crept  in quietly and became afraid to disrupt, get hurt or even be ostracized! It's more comfortable to hide, stay silent and point fingers instead of owning what is happening. 

BUT HE LOVES TO HEAR THE NOISE....HEAR OUR NOISE.

Tonight as I sit in my Prairie home and process what Jesus and His Gospel would say about all this I rise from my seated place, I shake off the chains of what has been done and what I've allowed to be done to me and know He is here.  I pick up my crutches, ask heaven for the courage we need to heal and  walk across the room to have that conversation and to stay present instead of running.  I stomp loud! I  put on my wild, red  lipstick and leave a Click Clack, Click Clack echo in the room because the heats of Hell and the Guss-like screams  in the world will not and cannot stop the sound of the One who came to break down walls and free us all from oppression, sin and death.  His sound is louder and will set all things right and there will be no hiding...stopping or silencing Him.  There are no sides to the story, but HE IS THE STORY.

And  a Christmas song hits my heart in September :

"Truly He taught us to love one another His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother And in His name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we Let all within us praise His holy name

Christ is the Lord O, praise His name forever
His power and glory ever more proclaim  His power and glory ever more proclaim

Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices O night divine O night when Christ was born  night divine
O Holy night O night divine"