Good morning,
The last time I was able to go back to Ethiopia was in 1998. My family and I had left from there in 1977 due to health and the political situation. My ability to speak the language had always been limited and going back made it clear that I had forgotten a great deal of what I had learned. Now when we go to an Ethiopian restaurant for their wonderful food, I have had to learn to limit what I try to say to them in their language because it always gets me into trouble. I know the greetings and I know how to count, but when I say that much, I am suddenly hopelessly lost in the flood of words that they assume I must understand. I hear their voices, but I really don’t have any idea what they are trying to tell me. The Lord has used this difficult situation to help me understand what people around me must feel like when I start to tell them about my Savior and the wonderful salvation he offers us. They may be looking at me, but the look in their eyes tells me that they don’t have a clue what I am saying or the meaning of the scripture verses I am sharing with them.
I know that I am one of God’s kids. I have had the joyful and painful experiences that come with living out the truths of God’s love letter to us, the Bible. I have learned to love the process of having the Holy Spirit open my mind and heart to the awesome truths that come alive to me as I read and pray through his words in my own heart language. It seems so clear, so why do their eyes fog over when we are talking. I have had to learn that although it could be my confused ideas that are creating the confusion, it’s not always my problem. John points out that people who belong to the world can only speak and hear the language of the world. They may even use the same words that I am speaking, but these same words have a whole different meaning to them then what God is telling us. They will often use Bible words to convince me that their definitions for what God is saying are right and that what I am thinking is wrong. The people of the world listen to them, so what is wrong with me, they say. It’s important to remember that only those people around us whose hearts have been opened by God will understand. The rest of the people around us won’t listen because what we say is in another language to them. Lord, please help us to be aware of the language barrier that surrounds most of the people we come in contact with.
1 John 4:4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us.
Roy Wisner
