Some people tell me that I’m strong. Maybe that’s why they think I can do what I do. Why Erica Stapleton with Channel 12 would want to interview me for an upcoming story. But it just isn’t true. I battle against fear every time I speak in public. When the camera turns on for interviews, I freeze up and get tongue tied. 

My house was in disarray the afternoon Erica asked if she and her crew could come by in the morning. I had to scramble to get it into decent shape, ran a swifter across my floors and resigned to the fact a puppy playpen would sit among the furniture and, as it turned out, right next to our interview chairs.

Let me tell you, I’m the antithesis of strength. But God is not. Since I am united to him through Christ, and because his love compels me, I can say yes to journalists like Erica. Even with butterflies in my stomach. 

Psalm 82:3-4 has no qualifiers. In fact, if you are a believer in Christ like me, it’s our privilege and joy to speak up for those who have no voice as we are able to do so. Especially for our own family members…

    “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;

        maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 

    Rescue the weak and the needy;

        deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

If God can use a mom like me, with no college degree, in desperate need of joining a Toastmasters club somewhere, he can use anyone. Even you. 

So, don’t be afraid to speak up. And even if you are afraid, do it anyway. Speaking up is hard. But it’s the very means that God uses to help our loved ones and neighbors who live with serious mental illness. In some cases, it may be the only thing that will make a difference in their care. 

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:10

How ironic, God uses the weak to help the weak. Don’t be afraid, if God tells us to speak up in scripture, he will surely help us do it.

– Deborah Geesling