Heart Language

In the airport recently, I stood near a large family who was busily talking among themselves handling the details of piles of luggage, small children, transportation…all the things you talk about at 1 a.m. at baggage claim. I’m just guessing they were talking about these things because of the hour and the location; I couldn't understand a word because they weren't speaking English!

I couldn’t help them with their Louisville logistics because I didn’t speak their language at all. (Turns out it was Portuguese.) But I was helpless because I didn’t know their words, their style of communication in their heart language. 

Communication barriers exist in other dimensions too. What if I wanted to communicate with words to someone in a biker gang? A woman who has paid her way in life using the one tool we all possess? A person who is homeless? What if the message they need to hear is life-changing and soul-saving and eternal? Where is the heart language to reach these? 

Will I pull out my tattered tract with four easy steps to God? Will I sing an old hymn that is embroidered with insider churchy language? Will I invite to my church for Sunday morning?

Paul wandered into Athens without being an Athenian…just an educated Jew. He didn’t exactly speak Athenian idol culture! But his heart, his love for Christ and these people took him outside his own normal, and into theirs, when he spoke to them about their many gods, and then especially about their “unknown god.” This was the one they created in case they had missed one in their vast collection of idols. Then he brought the conversation from “unknown god” to the God who can be known. All this because he took the time to find their cultural language to reach them. 

A wise old Rabbi, finding himself and others like him to be unwelcome refugees from the Nazis, described their situation to the hostile Japanese authorities: “The Nazis hate us because we are not Aryans; we are Asians. Like you we are an Asian people. You come from the northeast tip of Asia; we come from the southwest tip of Asia. The Nazis hate all Asians and plan to wipe all Asians from the face of the earth. Now it is us that they pursue. Later it will be you.” When he spoke a “language” they could understand, they granted the needed visas. 

What if I had persisted in speaking English help to the travelers last night? Futile exercise for sure. What if Paul had lectured the Athenians on Jewish law and culture? What if the old rabbi in Japan had told the Japanese authorities that they were children of Abraham and demanded special privileges based on that?

Challenging is the journey to learn to speak the heart and culture language of the next person God brings across my path.