“Speak Up!”
April 14, 2023
8Open your mouth for the people who cannot speak,
For the rights of all the unfortunate. – Proverbs 31:8
This verse reminds me of the Book of Esther where we read about Esther, who unsummoned, courageously went before King Ahasuerus to plead for the lives of the Jewish people. Esther’s approaching the king without an invitation could have cost her life. However, she set aside her fear to speak up for the rights of the unfortunate Jewish people who were decreed to be killed. “After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).
Proverbs 31: 8, and the account of Esther risking her own life to speak up for the Jewish people who could not speak for themselves, reminds me of a medical emergency my dad experienced many years ago. His pacemaker was not functioning properly, and his heart’s arrhythmias were not stable, so off to the emergency room we went. The attending doctor, after repeatedly staring at the heart monitor and checking my dad’s vital signs, shook his head and said, “Hmmm…I don’t know what is causing this.”
I had some idea of what might be wrong because I had become quite “educated” on my father’s health and was told pacemakers could malfunction in this way. So, I called a medical professional friend in order to check my thinking. She confirmed my thinking and provided some medical jargon that I could use in a conversation with the stumped doctor. While I did not understand the medical terms, I was able to memorize the phrase, “Could it possibly be that my dad is experiencing pacemaker mediated tachycardia? And if so, should his pacemaker be interrogated?”
I returned to my dad’s room with a new dilemma. What should I do when I think I might have an answer to a medical dilemma that the medical professional does not have? Do I keep silent, or do I speak up? I chose to speak up even though I feared upsetting the doctor. I chose to speak because my father was in great need, and he could not speak for himself. The doctor did not seem to hear me, but he did leave the room for a few minutes and when he returned, he did so with another doctor who interrogated my dad’s pacemaker and stabilized my dad’s condition.
8Open your mouth for the people who cannot speak,
For the rights of all the unfortunate. – Proverbs 31:8
The application of this verse extends far beyond my experience in the emergency room with my dad and a perplexed doctor. Even so, that night was a modern day, small-scale version of Esther. No, I did not go before a king, but I went before the doctor. I did not speak on behalf of a nation, but I spoke on behalf of my dad who meant the world to me!