Language is Powerful

Let's say there's a guy named David. David is from India. In India, David was a respected doctor for over 20 yrs. That was until political pressure forced him to flee from his home. Now he's found his way to Canada to start a new life. However, David does not speak English fluently.

When I worked at Walmart an Indian man came in trying to get his stereo he had just bought to work. I could see his problem and tried explaining it to him, but he could not speak English very well, which left us both very frustrated. In my frustration I remember thinking, "This guy is so stupid, he's living here so why doesn't he learn English?!?"

It dawned on me after he left: For all I know, this guy could be much smarter than me. Even though David was a brilliant doctor in India, here in Canada people would think of him as a moron because he wouldn't be able to communicate with them.

Language is powerful. You cannot truly know what's going on inside someone's head or who they are as a person, if they are unable to communicate with you. Imagine what it would be like to be mute. There is a guy in my church who has lost the ability to speak coherently. You can see the frustration on his face as he tries to tell you something funny he just thought of. I don't really know him, but he is probably incredibly funny and brilliant. I wonder if anyone can really know him now.

And then there's Patty from Peru. A girl I had a brief relationship with who spoke hardly any English whereas I spoke hardly any Spanish. I realized fairly soon there was no point in us trying to make things work out, because I hardly knew her as a person due to our language barrier.

So today I did a message on Science & the Bible with another guy named Pete Tait. I find preaching challenging enough as it is, because I struggle to find just the right words to communicate the concept that is growing inside my head. It was especially difficult today, because I have such difficulty communicating smart things, haha.

There are many books on Science & the Bible that are intelligently written, but I just can't word it the way they do. Not only do I fail at communicating deep and complex matters with scientific terms and in an intelligent fashion, but I also struggle to communicate things that are complex in a simple and easy-to-understand way.

Well, I try my hardest, and I hope for the most part I accomplish my mission. It's just sad to know that a lot of what goes on in my brain cannot fully be expressed to others. Actually maybe that's a good thing...