Today I enjoyed a 40 minute meeting with two leaders of our Vietnam denomination. One speaks some English, the other almost none. I had a good translator with me. When preaching or teaching, you stop after every two or three sentences to allow the translator to give almost exactly the same information. However in a conversational meeting like we had today, the one who does not speak Vietnamese (that would be me) listens to 3 or 4 minutes of conversation, after which that person (me) receives a 30 second summary from the translator.
At the end of the meeting, I had a clear summary sense of the conversation and the agreed upon action plan. However there was a lot I missed, because of the language barrier. At the end of the conversation, I was asked about my Vietnamese language learning. I spoke one fluent sentence to them and then gave them the six phrases I regularly use in directing taxis. This demonstration of my language limitation drew large smiles.
Like all those who have not mastered Vietnamese, we daily live with communication limitations. You would think that there would be an even greater communication problem when with our human limitations we pray to the Divine, Unlimited One. Yet in fact we know that God never misunderstands us. Better yet, even when we fail to speak our inner thoughts, He knows what they are.
"The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his innermost being." Proverbs 20:27
How reassuring that God knows my innermost thoughts, longings and motives. How frightening that God knows my innermost thoughts, longings and motives! Truly our innermost being is naked and exposed before our Holy God.
Thankfully, we know that in Christ and his death, God offers us abundant forgiveness and grace. Scripture assures us that we are loved just as we are. In Christ we have a sympathetic High Priest who with great empathy hears our prayers. The Holy Spirit offers us help to clean up, not just our outer life and our spoken words, but our real inner person and our inner thoughts.
Thank you Lord, that we don't need a translator as we communicate with you. Or if in one sense we do, then we are provided the Holy Spirit who "intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Romans 8:26, 27
At the end of the meeting, I had a clear summary sense of the conversation and the agreed upon action plan. However there was a lot I missed, because of the language barrier. At the end of the conversation, I was asked about my Vietnamese language learning. I spoke one fluent sentence to them and then gave them the six phrases I regularly use in directing taxis. This demonstration of my language limitation drew large smiles.
Like all those who have not mastered Vietnamese, we daily live with communication limitations. You would think that there would be an even greater communication problem when with our human limitations we pray to the Divine, Unlimited One. Yet in fact we know that God never misunderstands us. Better yet, even when we fail to speak our inner thoughts, He knows what they are.
"The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his innermost being." Proverbs 20:27
How reassuring that God knows my innermost thoughts, longings and motives. How frightening that God knows my innermost thoughts, longings and motives! Truly our innermost being is naked and exposed before our Holy God.
Thankfully, we know that in Christ and his death, God offers us abundant forgiveness and grace. Scripture assures us that we are loved just as we are. In Christ we have a sympathetic High Priest who with great empathy hears our prayers. The Holy Spirit offers us help to clean up, not just our outer life and our spoken words, but our real inner person and our inner thoughts.
Thank you Lord, that we don't need a translator as we communicate with you. Or if in one sense we do, then we are provided the Holy Spirit who "intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Romans 8:26, 27
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