When words get in the way

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A funny thing happened a while ago.  I booked our car in for a service and dropped it off at 8 am.  Not knowing exactly how long it would take to be done I took my laptop to a coffee shop to do some writing.  It turns out that a major car service takes longer than a couple of hours, so, eventually, I got bored.  Scrolling through my Facebook feed (where I seem to get a lot of inspiration for this blog) I came across a friend's post that looked interesting, exciting, truth-filled and super spiritual.  All in a single sentence.  Amazing.

Having the time to pause and reflect on said statement (while still waiting for the call from the garage to come pick up the car) I found myself wondering whether I'm fully understanding the post.  The more I thought about it, the less it seemed like the truth-filled, super spiritual, powerful, situationally relevant statement I read before.  Oops.

Can it be that we are becoming (or have become) a people who want to condense deep spiritual truths into single sentences, regardless of context and background?  Can it be that the character limit on Twitter has made us condense the richness and complexity of our faith into single sentence meme theology? And then expect people who have or want nothing to do with the Christian faith to understand it, appreciate it and apply it to their own lives instantly?

Anyway.

In an effort to understand the statement correctly I wrote a question in the comments section.  It turns out that I shouldn't have.  I think my friend's expectation was that I should have gotten it first time round and agree with the intended meaning all along.  There was a bit of a fuzzy exchange of words that has since been deleted, so I can't revisit it to see where exactly or why we misunderstood each other.  The conclusion I arrived at was that words sometimes get in the way of proper communication. (You can Tweet that...)

That's probably why Peter encourages us to "Live honorably among the unbelievers," (1 Peter 2:12) so that they will glorify God when He comes to judge.  "Love, joy, peace, forbearance (i.e. tolerance), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" do not need contextual clarification or explaining.  "Against such things there is no law," (Galatians 5:22-23). I was even reminded of the advice Paul gives Timothy in 2 Timothy 24. We're not arguing people into heaven. We're loving them into a greater awareness of Christ's perfect love for us all. Jesus was, after all, not called the Prince of Public Speaking (although He was pretty good at it), but the Prince of Peace.

Using words to preach is important.  Preaching is one of the Spiritual gifts and is a wonderful tool to communicate the good news of Christ to many all over the world.  However, it's not the only way. Not all Christians are called to be preachers (thankfully...).  We are all called to be bearers of the Gospel, though. We are all called to be light and salt in a dark and tasteless world. Not by our own power or understanding, but by the Spirit living in and through us.

May our lives speak more loudly of the hope that lives within us and the unity we have in Christ than our words can ever explain. Even on social media. Even at the garage, waiting for my car.

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