TUESDAY
           4 March 2008

Communication is one of the most frustrating things in life.

We are constantly speaking, writing, chatting, whining, blabbing about all sorts of things–but how much of it are we really understanding? If it is difficult to understand even the inner workings of our own minds, how can we expect another completely separate soul to comprehend anything the same way we do?

When it comes to divine revelation, it is truly an act of God that the individual Christian is given the enlightenment to understand even the smallest amount of the Gospel. But when we turn to each other to express these wonderful things of which we seem to hold a tentative grasp, so much is lost in translation (as the saying goes). It is the same with any other arena: How can I express to you how amazing a piece of art, or a book is? Why don’t you understand why this experience is so important to me? I do not direct these questions to any one in particular, they are simply rhetorical, but I find myself asking them more often.

I think it must be an inevitable consequence of our innate sinfulness that not only can our understanding of God be skewed by the inappropriate translations that we conduct in our own heads, but also may our conversation amongst each other be thrown off by the “babel” which pervades our interactions. 

It is certainly something to consider in your next one-on-one conversation.