Mime: The Voice Of Slavery
The voice of slavery is the voice of deception.
To survive, one becomes skilled in deceit, which unless dealt with, pollutes the walk of truth with Christ. The slave was lied to when his dignity was stolen. Motivated by fear of man, to feel safe, he takes the voice of slavery as his own and silences the voice of truth. There is no inner integrity between thoughts and speech. Embracing fear, hatred is given birth in the regions of the mind. It doesn’t matter if he was set free or if God has completed the work, while he retains the voice of the slave, he holds the mentality, the mind, and the heart of a slave.
When one’s voice is stolen through abuse – as in slavery – we try to regain it through Self. In anger, we “feel” stronger as we demand a voice. But we also feel entitlement. The catch phrase –fight to regain your voice – “feels” good; it gives an illusion of being in control. Linked with the anger of others, it “feels” like we have regained our voice.
But do you know who you are? Or what your voice sounds like? The temptation is to assume a voice that feels like it expresses our pain. If it is not our authentic voice, it cannot facilitate healing but may cause us to pass our pain onto others.
In our woundedness, if we have not dealt with the heart issues or grieved our loss, struggling to survive, we become experts at hiding, wearing masks, and self-medicating.
As infants, we learn by mimicking. As we grow, we are to develop a distinctive voice. Where there has been trauma or lack of nurture, we become mimickers, expert at mimicry. According to Webster’s, mimic is derived from mime; a person acts a farce, or plays a part where he/she mimics or imitates another person or event. To mimic is “to imitate accurately, to copy closely, to assume a likeness as a protection or advantage”; it is an actor skilled in mimicry, the practice or art of mimicking.[1] This performance develops into an art form to provide self-protection or to gain an advantage over another.
Pantomime
When one has not dealt with the hidden issues of shame, stolen dignity, etc., the voice one gains is a copy, in alignment with the enemy of our soul. Mime, an art form, made me think of pantomime, which is derived from Ancient Rome, where masked dancers, in Latin known as pantomimus, or in Greek - pantomimos meaning “imitator of all”, imitated gestures and actions of another. Normally, they were accompanied by words and music. The Pantomimi (plural) were talented performers, who used expressive hand movements, to perform a drama. Pantomime is all about performance[2], and often involves cross gender role playing. [3]
An interesting note on pantomime is “the pantomimus wore various masks, which identified his characters but deprived him of speech and of the use of facial expressions.”[4] If your voice was stolen, the enemy of your soul is happy for you to gain a different voice. But that voice cannot be purified by the fire, it is not authentic; like the pantomimi, though speech increases, it is not your voice.
The mask makes you feel safe, but allows sin to flourish within as the carnal nature is fed. In reality you are still captive; you have been deprived of true speech, and deceived into believing it is you who speak, but the art form you use is not your own. Because it is not yours, it is not genuine; it is a copy, a shadow of a reality, an illusion.
A key aspect of mime or mimic is ridicule; it may also be true of pantomime. Even if unaware of ridicule in one’s heart, it manifests as comparisons are made that move him out from under God’s authority. His words speak curses, coming from a heart held in captivity. Because the voice is a copied voice, the source of human curses is always the demonic.
Authentic Voice
Voice[5] is important to the Lord; it is used nearly 400 times in the Old, and over 130 times in the New Testament. Its first use referred to God’s voice in the Garden of Eden as He kindly called to Adam and Eve.
Authentic voice is developed through self-knowledge, self-discipline, and listening to the Lord speak words of life over us. As the Living Word ministers life to us, we appropriate truth into our innermost being, His words bring healing and deliver us from bondage to the abuse we experienced. As a result, we speak life over ourself.
I am convinced each person on this planet has experienced some kind of abuse in their life. It is easy to make a “them”, and an “us”, but we are all wounded, broken people. Christ desires us to find freedom, and deliverance from bondage, to receive His words inside us, where they help us formulate His thoughts inside of us.
He does not speak words externally or plant them in our mind. His Spirit speaks to our spirit. As the Word dwells within us, His words originate within the core of our being, deep in our heart. They are not copied, plagiarized thoughts entering our mind from an exterior source, but those words arise and resonate within us; through meditation, we develop an authentic voice as we speak them.
Miriam & Aaron’s Dilemma
Miriam and Aaron suffered. No doubt, many times they had to close their mouth, had to be silent when they wanted to speak against their oppressors. As children, when they saw Moses taken from their home, their vocalized cry was silenced by fear. That was true for all of Israel. Held in captivity, as slaves, their personal and collective voice was stolen from them.
Through historical acts, they watched their enemies defeated before them as they were set free from Egypt. But to be delivered from the bondage and shame of slavery is a long, painful process. Miriam and Aaron had a slave mentality; they had become skilled in deception.
The only way to be set free from a counterfeit voice is to learn to be honest with oneself. To verbalize what was experienced, to name it and its impact. To reject words of bitterness, criticism, and cursing.
Miriam and Aaron needed to learn to use their voice to reject the lies they believed. They needed the touch of the Lord to purify their voice so they could choose truth for their identity, choose to speak words of kindness and truth to each other, and speak life to themselves and others.
Do you speak words of life over yourself?
[1] Webster’s Unabridged 2nd ed. 1979. P 1143.
[2] Webster’s. P 1295.
[3] Pantomimus. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/441629/pantomimus . Accessed 13 Mar 15.
[4] Mime and Pantomime. Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2015 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1452384/mime-and-pantomime. Ibid.
[5]Voice: H6963 qowl masculine noun from unused root “to call aloud”.
