If you knew what tomorrow looked like, how would that impact the way you live today?
This question was cinematically posed in a recent movie I watched. The main character was living with an incurable disease that would take her life sooner rather than later. She knew there were going to be life experiences that she would never personally realize. The hopelessness of no future prevented her from truly living in the present. That is until she met a boy.
The newfound relationship challenged and encouraged her to live life unapologetically. She lived as if she had nothing to lose. She knew her time was minimal but wanted to maximize it all. She experienced a freedom to live out loud because of a relationship that empowered her to live life to the fullest - with no regrets, with no looking back.
Living out loud is living unapologetically.
Reading through John’s letter to the Early Church, there is a verse that causes me to pause as I contemplate what it looks like to live out loud. John says in 1 John 4:4, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
It is in our relationship with our Father that we too are encouraged to live unapologetically because we have nothing to lose. We may experience pain, loss, depression, anxiety, fear, rejection, doubt, bankruptcy, or even a terminal death sentence. Those experiences, feelings, and emotions may rob us of happiness and hopefulness, but they cannot rob us of the Father’s love and power in our lives. Jesus told his disciples that the Enemy (thief) comes to kill, steal, and destroy BUT that he comes to give life and to give it abundantly (John 10:10).
How do we live out loud?
How then do we live out loud from within our relationship with our Father? First, we need to truly understand that we haven’t been given a refurbished life. We received a new life that was raised from the dead. The old life has been buried and we are a new creation. We live our new lives in the power of his resurrection.
We’ve been transformed from the walking dead to an abundant life. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit that empowers us to maximize our lives now.
Second, we need to fully trust that God is for us. Nothing happens in our lives that God doesn’t allow. When hardship and difficulty come our way, we can face it with confidence because the eternal presence of our Father is greater than any external reality. God reminds us that we have already overcome the world because we are his. We can confidently pursue God’s design for our lives knowing that he is with us and we are more than conquerors. That is a blessed assurance.
Third, we have a family of spiritual siblings that come alongside us to cheer for us, walk with us, root for us, and pray for us. Living out loud in unison with our brothers and sisters reverberates throughout creation.
We are one family living out one mission for one purpose - to introduce the world to the power of our Father’s love, grace, and mercy. Living out loud wasn’t designed to be a concert of soloists, but a harmonious and diverse orchestra in rhythm with our Conductor.
Living out loud is living intentionally.
Living out loud refers to lives that are intentionally pursuing God’s design regardless of circumstances or consequences. Living out loud implies that we are vocalizing our intent and purpose. We can’t be silent or won’t be muted. Living out loud becomes a cacophony of the resurrected that has eternal ramifications.
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