GENTLE WHISPER

Image credit: Toa Heftiba. Unsplash.com

Fond of talking in whispers? Well, don't! Whispering is not healthy. 

I once overused my vocal chords. The doctor ordered: 

No talking. No singing. And no whispering. For three straight months! These happened thrice in a space of three years. And with these, a lengthy voice therapy.

During those times, I had to take a vacation from teaching, my modest source of income after retirement from corporate life. Sadder still, I could not sing in church. 

It was sheer agony—to not speak or sing when I needed or wanted to. Attempting to talk in whispers made my condition worse. 

Do you know that the Bible cautions us against whispering? "Where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases," Proverbs 26:20. 

Not only does whispering abuse your vocal chords; it also causes tension with others. 

Why? Be in a room where two people speak in whispers. Next thing you know, others are egging them to just blurt it out, "What's all the secrecy about?" Start of a gossip marathon? 

Gossip is juicy, ain't it? 

Or someone's whispering triggers this in you, "Were they talking about me?" 

Slander. Gossip. Resentment. Suspicion. Malice. They're all part of the whispering coven. 

The same verse in Proverbs 26 says that "for lack of firewood, the fire goes out". A whisper is like a tiny ember which, when it touches the leaves and branches around it, bursts into a fiery flame. Bush fires and the deadly havoc they cause start this way. 

Forests regrow. Broken lives are harder to rebuild. So don't be sucked in by whispers. 

One type of whispering we must desire. 

1Kings 19:12 "Rather than such attention-grabbing spectacles, God came to Elijah softly and discreetly in a 'gentle whisper'." The prophet searched for God in the wind, the earthquake and the fire. The Lord wasn't in any of these. 

God's presence was clear—via a gentle whisper. His voice, though small and whispered, is much more powerful than any of those forces. It blows His Word clearly, intimately straight into our hearts. 

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." 

The next time you read His Word or pray, may His gentle whisper awaken the truth, and His peace and grace, in your heart. And make us kinder and not be so rash to descend into careless whispers. 

Prayer: Lord, forgive me for my careless whispers—those times when I gossiped or slandered about others. Help me instead to train my ears to listen to you—Your Word; and to pray and be still, and not let me be overtaken by my own thoughts and fears. Teach me, Jesus. Amen.