So many wonderful, beautiful things live inside of you. Your unique thoughts on the world, your intriguing emotions, your personality. So many broken, divisive things live inside of you too. Your judgments of your peers, your hatred and shame, your anger.
These thoughts and emotions come out of us in different ways, how we talk to someone, how we approach the world, or what we do. Some of these thoughts and feelings come out of us naturally. They flow out, sometimes bringing joy and healing and love, other times bringing hurt and brokenness.
There are instances though where the thoughts and emotions don’t come out of us. They end up getting stuck. We want to release them but we don’t know how. So they swirl around our heads and hearts. Whether these are positive thoughts and emotions or negative ones, there is something in us that wants to bring the things that live inside of us out.
When they get stuck, we can become overwhelmed, exhausted, isolated, and anxious. So how do we get them out? There are two things that we can do that connect our inner world to the outside world: language and action. These are our two release valves and communication tools. There is no other way to express what is inside of us other than these two things. They help us take what is silent, hidden, and unknown and turn it into something alive, known, and something that is expressed out loud.
Bringing what is living out of us does not have to include other people, but sometimes it helps if it does. Living out loud could be talking to yourself in your car, expressing what is going on in your head and heart. It could be journaling, without judgment of yourself to release the shame that has been building. It could be calling up a friend or loved one to express fears and doubts that have been nagging you. It could be dancing alone in your room to your favorite song to release and connect with the joy that lives in your belly.
When we do these things, we allow beautiful things inside of us to find new life and the heavy things inside of us to finally be released. We can see truth more clearly and lies fall away. We understand ourselves better. We relate to those we love better. And throughout this process, we become connected to God in a new way as we start to see what beautiful, lovely, wonderful things He has planted inside of each of us. When we live out loud, we find that God responds back. We start to see His fingerprint in everything, feel the vibrations of His voice in all of creation and in ourselves.