When you go to a therapist you will most likely get an education in communication. There is that one phrase everyone knows: “Communication is key,” often used in relationship counseling. That is just a prelude to the conversation you are going to have when you go into a counselor’s office. You might get a lesson in what people say vs. what they mean. That is where the lines of communication often break. People say one thing and their meaning can get misconstrued. You get this all the time with really young people. They don’t know the social cues and idiosyncrasies adults use so much. Here are a few examples I found that prove my point:
One parent noticed their toddler was about to hit her head on a bar in the playground. The parent told her to duck. So the kid quacked like a duck and then hit her head on the bar.
A child ordered food from a waiter. The waiter asked if he wanted “super salad.” That sounded great to the child so he said “yes!” It took them a while to understand the waiter was really asking whether he wanted soup or salad.
Children aren’t the only ones affected by communication blunders. One husband reported being asked by his wife to watch the potatoes cooking on the stove while she stepped out. The husband dutifully watched them burn.
Idioms are strange things in our language. There are quite a few of them too. Here are some examples. See if you can come up with what each one really means.
Bite the bullet: To get something over with because it is inevitable
Cut me some slack: Don’t be so critical.
Let someone off the hook: To not hold someone responsible for something
Pull yourself together: Calm down
Wrap your head around something: to understand something
What those phrases mean is a lot different from their literal meaning. And if you don’t know that you won’t understand what someone is saying when those phrases get used.
What if you don’t speak the same language? Then it is almost impossible to understand each other.
This is what made the Tower of Babel incident so bad.
Genesis 11:1-9
11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Think about this. This was a severe punishment. Why? Because it severed relationships. If you can’t communicate with someone you don’t have much chance at a relationship. Now imagine knowing someone your whole life and then suddenly one day you can’t understand them anymore. What do you think will happen to your relationship? It may not survive.
Now fast-forward hundreds of years to Pentecost.
Acts 2:1-8
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
Here we have a Paradise Lost/Paradise restored story. What was lost at Babel is now regained with the gift of the Holy Spirit. People can communicate. This means relationships are possible. You can’t practice Christianity without relationship. The Christian mandate is able to proceed because relationships are what Christianity is all about.
The first gift given to the early believers was the ability to form relationships. And relationships are the cornerstone of our faith.
God Bless