Signing the truth

Last week’s Time International European Edition ran articles on 30 European heroes. One story told how Natalya Dmitruk interpreted the results of the Ukrainian presidential election on November 25, 2004. Interpreted, as in signed for the 100,000 deaf who were watching for news of the recent election. As the government-paid Newsperson read the government-controlled result that government-sponsored candidate Victor Yanukovych had won the election, Dmitruk signed in a corner of the TV screen in silence: “Yushchenko is our President. Do not believe the Central Electoral Commission. They are lying.”

I was impressed by the courage of this woman who couldn’t stand for lies to pass as truth. She risked it all, and it added momentum to last-year’s “Orange” revolution in Ukraine.

We need godly people who stand up and tell the truth. There are so many voices out there, in church and out, and some of us may see ourselves as that silent interpreter who can’t stand the lies and simply tells it as it is.

Yet there are many times that I’m just reading the script… And I look down at the silent person signing beside me and I see that she’s interpreting something different, something that rings so true that I catch my breath and mumble: “That’s what I really wanted to say. That’s the truth that will lead to real change. Why didn’t I say that?”

Thanks for stopping by.