I like to sing.   I do not have the best voice in the world but I know I am not horrible.   I am however very shy about my voice when it comes to singing in public.  That makes me a great singer in the shower and in my truck.  I mean when I am alone I can hit the notes and sing the melodies with the best of them (at least that is what I think anyhow).  So you can imagine my disappointment when I got in my truck the other day and began to sing along with one of my favorite praise artists and I sounded horrible. 

I had gotten up early to visit a friend and all the way to her house it was just a bunch of off key notes.  On the way home it was the same thing.  It really started to bother me when I started out to work that night.  I work quite a ways from my house and I love singing all the way to work.  But for some reason I just could not get any of the songs right.  It bothered me enough that I spent most of the night pondering the situation and asking God what was wrong, after all I was singing praise music.  It wasn't until I got back into my truck to go home that I got the answer. 

I have a big voice.  When I used to sing in high school, I was never given I microphone because I am naturally loud.  The only way I can hit most of the notes on key is if I am loud.  I need to be strong behind the notes for me to hit the right pitch.  I noticed that morning when I went to start singing to see if I still sounded bad that my radio volume was turned down.  So I cold barely here the notes I was supposed to me matching.  It never occurred to me to check this before because I knew all the words to the songs I was singing. 

After I turned the volume up, I still heard this voice in the back of my head that was saying turn it up.  I told God I already turned the volume up and was happy that I was singing fine again.  It then occurred to me that He wasn't talking about my volume anymore.  He was talking about my life.  When I sing in the car I am completely uninhibited.  I am so enveloped in the fact that I am praising God, that I don't think about what I look like to the people in the cars around me.  In order for me to be happy about what I sing in the car it has to be loud.  He was telling me that I need to be loud in the life that I lead for Him also. 

I am not talking about being what the world calls a Bible beater.  I am talking about being uninhibited about what I believe and who I believe in.  I am talking about being uninhibited about what I am called to do and the way I am to do it.  It is about being sure and secure in my beliefs and the truths and promises he has provided for me and not being afraid of what anyone else thinks about that. 

God is calling this generation that will take off from the last to be like that.  The last generation was one of evangelism and revival.  This next generation is going to pick up from the revival and evangelism and show the world how to live their life out loud and not just in the churches or privacy of their own homes.  God is calling this generation to turn up their lives.  So that the world can see His truth and promises in action in effect and not just in written word.  He wants to increase the blessings he has promised but we have to turn the volume up in our lives and leave our inhibitions behind. 


Mike Aguilar, November 2001