Hi
Having scraped through French in high school, I knew I had no need of it, especially since my life seemed set for staying in one place. Little did I know that God had other plans! So here I am, living and working in a space where speaking French is a serious advantage. My office arranged classes for us and the adventure began anew.
One day, I was studying idioms and one phrase jumped out at me. It translated literally as, ‘you speak French like a Spanish cow!’ I was lowing with laughter! For honestly, you could tell that some of us were not native speakers. And that applies to English, other languages, or even cultural practices. In some places, it really matters. Consider today’s Holy Nougat
“A little while later, some of the bystanders approached Peter and said to him, “Surely you’re one of them, too—your accent gives you away.”” Matthew 26:73 TLV
His accent gave him away!
Can you imagine Peter’s mortification in that moment? There he was trying to be incognito and the people claimed he was an outsider. No fun. And since he needed information, he would have to open his mouth. Moreover, the crowd was stirred up, hostile even; that was not the time for an accent to fail him! The real problem was that he’d been hanging out with Jesus for so long; he had begun to sound like him.
How long have we been hanging out with Jesus? Weeks, months, years? And in practical ways, are we likely to be identified by Jesus’ accent? Do we talk like Him? Do we sound like Him? Has He rubbed off on us as yet? And for the record, we are not speaking about Hebrew, Roman or Greek, nor Amharic, for that matter. Rather, we’re speaking about the Language of Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith and Self-Control. (Yes I know they are the Fruit of the Spirit, but can’t we see them as the manifestation of the heavenly language also?)
Paul celebrates the ability to speak in unknown tongues – downloaded from God’s Spirit to our lips – yet he proposes that Love speaks louder.
Are we speaking Love or any other Jesus language fluently? If not, then it’s time to improve our relationship.
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
