On Sunday before last, during our Sunday morning Bible study time, we
began our study of the life of Abraham. Which begins with God asking
Abram to do one simple thing: Move from his home. That's it. Move.
Nothing more, nothing less. His destination? The place God would show
him. He knew nothing more than that, and yet he went.
So, I posed the following question: What would be the most difficult part for you if God asked you to leave your home and go to a far away country? Their overwhelming response was not one I immediately expected. Their number one concern was learning a new language. I thought that they might be concerned about leaving family or friends behind. I thought they might be fearful of going somewhere they had never been. But none of this concerned them nearly as much as not knowing the language of where ever it is they would be going. We discussed all that would be involved in going somewhere new and the amount of faith it would take to have the kind of obedience of Abram. Later that day, I began to contemplate the implications of the number one concern the youth expressed: not knowing the language. After all, communication is important. Its how we relate to each other as human beings. It how we let others not what we want or need or how we feel. Its how we build relationships, and without relationships, we wouldn't really be humans. After all, God created us for relationships. And without language, we can not effectively communicate, and without communication, having relationships is next impossible, its a slippery slope. And all of a sudden, the number one concern of my youth made sense. However, my musings didn't end there. I began to ponder what it would be like if we all spoke the same language, and I found myself reminded of something I learned in school about there being an universal language: math. No matter where you go, math is always the same. 2+2= 4 no matter where you go. Now, I must confess I have never been much of a fan of math, but I did understand the concept and understood my teacher's point, yet I have to disagree somewhat with them. Yes, there certainly is a universality to math, but I believe there is an universal language that goes much deeper than that. And that language? Love. People everywhere speak it, whether they realize it or not. We all love someone or something. And we all show it. We show it by how we act, how we respond to others and how we spend our time. It is natural for us to spend our time and energies with the people (or animals or things) we love or doing the activities we love. Love is also the most powerful way we communicate, even stronger than the words or language we use. Therefore, while it would be certainly hard to go to a country where we don't know the language, I think we can manage to get by, if we remember the most important language of all, love. Yes, it would be wise for us to learn the spoken language of where ever it is one goes, but I think you can accomplish a whole lot just by loving people and showing them you care, and more importantly, that they are loved infinitely by a God, by His very nature is love. Love, not math or English or anything else is the universal language and it should be spoken often and to everyone, everywhere.
So, I posed the following question: What would be the most difficult part for you if God asked you to leave your home and go to a far away country? Their overwhelming response was not one I immediately expected. Their number one concern was learning a new language. I thought that they might be concerned about leaving family or friends behind. I thought they might be fearful of going somewhere they had never been. But none of this concerned them nearly as much as not knowing the language of where ever it is they would be going. We discussed all that would be involved in going somewhere new and the amount of faith it would take to have the kind of obedience of Abram. Later that day, I began to contemplate the implications of the number one concern the youth expressed: not knowing the language. After all, communication is important. Its how we relate to each other as human beings. It how we let others not what we want or need or how we feel. Its how we build relationships, and without relationships, we wouldn't really be humans. After all, God created us for relationships. And without language, we can not effectively communicate, and without communication, having relationships is next impossible, its a slippery slope. And all of a sudden, the number one concern of my youth made sense. However, my musings didn't end there. I began to ponder what it would be like if we all spoke the same language, and I found myself reminded of something I learned in school about there being an universal language: math. No matter where you go, math is always the same. 2+2= 4 no matter where you go. Now, I must confess I have never been much of a fan of math, but I did understand the concept and understood my teacher's point, yet I have to disagree somewhat with them. Yes, there certainly is a universality to math, but I believe there is an universal language that goes much deeper than that. And that language? Love. People everywhere speak it, whether they realize it or not. We all love someone or something. And we all show it. We show it by how we act, how we respond to others and how we spend our time. It is natural for us to spend our time and energies with the people (or animals or things) we love or doing the activities we love. Love is also the most powerful way we communicate, even stronger than the words or language we use. Therefore, while it would be certainly hard to go to a country where we don't know the language, I think we can manage to get by, if we remember the most important language of all, love. Yes, it would be wise for us to learn the spoken language of where ever it is one goes, but I think you can accomplish a whole lot just by loving people and showing them you care, and more importantly, that they are loved infinitely by a God, by His very nature is love. Love, not math or English or anything else is the universal language and it should be spoken often and to everyone, everywhere.
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