echoes

There’s a school I pass that has a habit – a good habit – of posting inspirational messages on their roadside sign. Recently, the message was “Be a Voice, Not an Echo”. At first, I thought it was a great message, not just for the students of the school but for all of us.

Don’t be an echo simply parroting what others say. Don’t be an echo blindly following a group. Don’t be an echo striving to imitate the “lives” plastered across social media.

Be a voice and speak up when you see something wrong. Be a voice and be true to yourself. Be a voice and find your own song to sing.

As important as all that is, the more I thought about it the more I came to see that the message doesn’t go far enough. There are times when being an echo is a good idea.

My first thought was Jesus. Jesus was an echo, but He was a good echo, sharing God’s word and God’s love. Jesus wasn’t simply parroting or blindly following, He understood God’s message and wanted to help everyone to understand it too. But make no mistake, Jesus was a voice as well. He didn’t imitate those around Him, He knew there was a better way and spoke up for it. Jesus was true to His calling – even though it ultimately cost him His life.

In that way, we too should be an echo. We can speak God’s word to a hurting world just like Jesus did. And when we find someone who has a message that shares God’s love, joining together to share that message gives it greater power and a wider reach. But it is still important to be a voice and speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves; to speak up when we see something wrong and work to fix it; to sing the song that God has given each of us.

Voices for justice, voices for equality, voices for peace – but echoes of love…