Out of my Mind - Speak Up

Just a random thought today. Why don't we say what is on our minds?

We have recently moved to a brand new building at work, constructed with all the modern amenities. It's a bio-lab, first rate, on a university campus. I was talking the other day to one of my coworkers. He bikes to work. He was complaining about how horribly the building was constructed. You see, the bike parking is too far from the door and the showers are on the second floor. Clearly the building was not constructed with bike riders in mind.

I thought, "I see. The closest I can get to the building is a quarter mile away because parking is atrocious here. You park your bike next to the building, and that's too far. And you're upset because they didn't design a bio-lab around your need for a shower?" So I told him ... nothing. Not a thing. Nothing at all. I simply nodded and said nothing.

It's just an example, but I'm sure you all can relate. Stuff goes on in our brains, things to say to people, and we don't say it. Why? More often than I can count I've walked away kicking myself. "Why didn't I say something?" Why?

There are reasons, I'm sure. Sometimes it is concern for the other person. "What I have to say likely won't help them, so I will keep silent. More often I suspect it's concern for myself. "If I say that they won't like me." Or others around won't like me. Or I might expose myself as a kook. Or worse, a Christian.

James says, "Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger" (James 1:19). Good advice, James. But being slow to speak to avoid being disliked - as a self-protective measure - isn't what is in mind here. Sometimes we need to speak up, even if it costs us. Deciding when that is might be difficult. Failing to do so, however, is a failure to love.