I was watching clips of the show The Voice on YouTube the other day, and I must admit, I was impressed. I was blown away by some of the talents people possess. It’s not just the talent that I was impressed by, it was how many people were actually pretty good at flexing their vocal pipes. Each person that performed had his or her own style of singing, his or her own uniqueness, which kept the judges and the audience on the edges of their seats. Each person was distinctively different, and even if they sang the same song as someone else who also auditioned on the show, they each sang it different ways.
Each of these people thought that they had what the audience and four judging artists were looking for. Each one of these people thought that their distinct uniqueness was better than the uniqueness of his or her fellow audition members. Each sang their song with the flare that they believed would put them over the top. They spent weeks and weeks, some even years to get to this point. Now there they were, on stage, doing what they do best in front of millions of viewers both in the audience and at home watching on their TV screens.
What is it about the human voice that compels us to listen to it when it starts to sing? What makes it so different than the voice when it is simply articulating words? How is it that singing connects us to one another on a level which no one can describe? One simple song can penetrate our emotions so deep, that it can leave us in awe of the life we are here living.
But why do we only choose to listen to those whose voice is pleasing to the ear?
We see it every day on shows such as The Voice, X-Factor, and American Idol. People being judged because their voice isn’t as pleasing to the ear as their counterparts’ voices. People being denied a role in the competition because they “don’t have what it takes”, “have a poor voice”, or “aren’t aesthetically appealing”. Is it just the judges’ problem? Or is it a societal problem? I must admit, I’ve fallen victim to it, too. I’ll admit, I enjoyed watching and listening to those who where talented more so than listening to those who lack the talent. I was more inclined to invest my time listening to the voices of the gifted than to the voices of the not-so-gifted. I believe it’s more of a societal problem. We are attracted to talent that brings us comfort.
But why raise this story? In a way, the life we live is like having our own distinct voice. We try to perfect it and gain the attention of others. We try to be aesthetically appealing by owning a big house, a luxury car, and possessing as many things as possible. We strive to fit in, as if our lives are judged by both those who have already made it big in society and the people who we are around each and every day. We do whatever we can to make our “voice” as big, as loud, and as beautiful as we can make it.
We’re so busy trying to perfect our “voice”, that we lose touch with those who don’t have the “talent”. We ignore the cries of the poor, of the hungry, sick, and lonely, because we aren’t comfortable with dealing with that. Their voices are far from appealing, so we ignore them, judge them, and shut them out. We deny them from the “role of life” because it doesn’t measure up to the standards we want for our own lives. We figure that if we ignore their voices, we wont have to hear from them again.
But their voices are getting louder and louder. They are growing in numbers each and every day. More people are going hungry. More people are getting sick. More groups of people are subject to abuse both of physical and psychological nature. We cannot continue to shut them out. What if, as a group of believers, we actually cling to our creed of love and compassion and help them work on their voice? What if, instead of judging and ignoring, we stuck to giving and serving them in any way possible?
My goal for this trip is this: instead of trying to determine which individual voice is the greatest, why not have a choir where all voices are accepted, regardless of how they sound? The people who possess talent want the choir COLLECTIVELY to perform well, so they are more than willing to help out those who aren’t fortunate enough to be gifted with a great voice.
We are one choir, one group, one race. It’s time to stop trying to be The Voice and time to start being The Voices.
