What Is A Frank Voice?
I’m no stranger to puns with my last name. After 30 years on this Earth, I’ve likely heard them all roughly a million times. Each. Every. Day.
It’s fine. I’m fine. We’re all fine.
But really, though the creativity faded for me roughly three decades ago, I can’t help but engage at my own expense sometimes.
A Frank Voice is one of those times. It started in early 2017, Hailee and I were preparing to become foster parents. We felt led to write about our experience, and we knew we had to be very honest about the process from all angles. We didn’t want to sugarcoat our observations or water down our convictions. In short, we wanted to be real, raw, and vulnerable.
Hailee’s first post right out the gate was incredible. A beautiful letter to our future foster children that makes me misty-eyed every time I read it. From then on, we didn't stop. We were angry, we grieved, we shared how the Lord was working in our lives, and through it all, I truly believe this has been a ministry for us. So first, thank you for joining us on this journey.
The Name
So where did the name come from? As we started brainstorming about our goals and our vision, we figured we’d often be saying things nobody else is saying and taking real stances. In short, we didn’t want to have any limitations to our candor. Obviously, my name is the perfect synonym for candid speech.
The example that often came to mind was from Isaiah 40:3 and Matthew 3:3 when John the Baptist is being prophesied and described. Not that we believe we are prophets or subscribe to any sort of subtle arrogance about our calling, but the words, “A voice cries in the wilderness,” speak to me.
That’s an idiom still used often today to mean someone who is saying hard truths that people may not like or may not be popular. That often describes my opinions—I’m wired to avoid the beaten path. In fact, I try to avoid reading opinion pieces or anything like that just because I’d rather arrive at my own conclusions. More than once I’ve arrived at an opinion or conclusion, realized that it’s the popular answer, and been tempted to change my mind just to spite the crowd.
So there is certainly some element of that stubbornness in the identity of A Frank Voice. For better or for worse, it’s there.
But there is another reason I think I’m drawn to that imagery. Hailee and I are pretty representative of the average person in many ways. Average income class, average family size—when you picture the regular-old American family just doing their thing, we’re probably pretty close.
But there’s plenty of junk that happens in the middle of the bell curve that doesn’t often get talked about. It’s a mess in here. Instagram makes everything look beautiful, Facebook makes everything look fun, Twitter makes everything look witty. But how real is that, honestly?
Nobody talks about miscarriages. Nobody talks about how hard it is to get beat up by a 4-year-old foster kid. Maybe somebody needs to.
Sometimes it downright feels like the wilderness in here. If we can help and bless people by talking about it—admitting that it’s not always hunky-dory—then we’re all about it.
Even our logo at the top of the page suggests this idea: a beautiful but wild mountain vista peeks out from within the words, suggesting there is more under the surface than is at first apparent.
So if you’ve ever wondered what the deal is, there you have it. We promise to be gentle. But we’re going to be real as heck—not just for effect, but because sometimes it helps to know when you’re not alone.
