That Old, Nursery Speaker

The speaker in our church nursery needs to be replaced. It has needed to be replaced for several years. In fact, I think maybe it needed to be replaced when I first came to the church.

It reminds me of our church sign. When Jane and I came to Milford Baptist, there were two old, weathered posts with two, parallel planks attached with nail-on letters with the church’s name. Ugly. We talked for a long time about replacing that sign. A long time. Finally, it got replaced. And it has even been updated since.

But not the nursery speaker. When turned up so a person can hear, it is accompanied by so much static, it’s not worth listening to. So people just turn it off. Now I know what you’re thinking. I’m the pastor, and I’m supposing that there are ladies in the nursery who actually want to listen to the message during their nursery duty. One might suspect that even if that old speaker was clear as a bell, they still might turn it off. It’s not so much the static. They might just like the quiet, however much there might be in a church nursery.

But I wonder if our lives might be a little like that old nursery speaker. We have a message to tell; a story to share, of what we have learned of God and about His grace that He has brought to bear in our lives. But as sincere as we may be in wanting to get the message out, if it is accompanied by static or distortion, to most people, you and your story will not be worth listening to.

The distortions that I’m thinking of are the inconsistencies and disconnects in our lives that contradict what we say. I’m thinking of things like self-righteousness - a “look-at-me” attitude that repels people and doesn’t sit well with grace. Or judgmentalism, a sense of disapproval that gets communicated without saying a word. Or a messy, undisciplined life, where the turmoil of disorder in marriage, or kids, or home, or finances, or relationships sends a message that we are in desperate need of redemption, rather than having story of redemption to tell.

As witnesses, we are not perfect, and our message is not that we are perfect. We are sinners saved by grace. But it is a fact that the static of our lives can drown out the message of grace. The point is not that we should cease sharing our story. But we must be diligent in cooperating with the Spirit in bringing order to the distorted areas of our lives, both for our own sake, and for the sake of others.

“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Corinthians 14:8 KJV)