"Sometimes I'm Silent"

While working with some students at an after-school program yesterday, one young man looked at me and said, "Sometimes, I'm silent."

I thought it was an interesting line and probably one that he wouldn't share with just anyone. I have to remember, though, that a few moments later, he also said, "I live close to the mountains." The closest mountains to Huntsville are . . . well, I have no idea, because there are no mountains close by. I have no idea what he was talking about. And, it caused me to immediately question my having suddenly given him Boy Genius status.

But I engaged him further with the "Sometimes, I'm silent" line because it stood in rather stark contrast to the screaming and yelling most of the other kids around us were doing at that time.

He went on to say that sometimes he just feels like being silent. I encouraged him that such feelings are okay. I, too, am sometimes silent, often when others around me are being talkative, particularly in larger groups. Society has had a way of making me feel wrong, or at the least awkward, particularly as a youngster, for not always wanting to be extremely extroverted and talkative in larger groups. I sometimes thrive in smaller settings. And I wanted him to know that it's okay if he feels that way at times, too.

I have a feeling that's what he was trying to say. And I have a feeling that my words of encouragement were just that: positive words that re-assured him that who he is okay and good.

I am thankful for whatever factors are present in this young man's life that cause him to feel okay and good for being who he is, not who others want him to be. I hope that is what the after-school program that he is a part of does for him. That is what I have always hoped the youth ministries that I have been in charge of over the years are for the youth that have been a part of them. In the face of so many things telling young people who and what they need to be, they need to be told and have instilled in them the reality that who they are is who they were created to be. And that is good.

We are all unique. And if that were not the case, the world would be very boring. So if sometimes, we are talkative and maybe even loud, that's cool. And if we are sometimes silent, that's all right, too.