Lost in Translation by Shalene

I had some interesting dialogue with my husband last night (as we do most nights) and I wanted to share it with you, because it led me to some profound thoughts. I was in the kitchen last night and my husband was in the living room with our two youngest children. I could hear the baby running around like a wild child, and asked my husband from the kitchen: "Are you letting her be active and rambunctious?" He said "huh?" and so I turned my head towards the living room, and said a little louder and a little slower "Are you letting her be active and rambunctious?" He said "Another yak on the bounces?" I lost it! I started giggling uncontrollably. Unfortunately, it really isn't all that funny.

You see, the reason for our issue was that my husband has a partial hearing loss that causes him difficulty in hearing the exact decibel level that my voice happens to be in. Too many years of listening to loud music and working around loud machinery has caused this. (Yes, I did see the report from his last hearing test that verifies this.) Unless I am right in front of him, facing him, when I speak, he must try to translate what he thinks I said, by listening to the vowel sounds he hears and what little bit of the consonant sounds he can hear. So he got "Another yak on the bounces?" when I said "Are you letting her be active and rambunctious."

This had me thinking. I got to thinking about the many people in the world that have heard of Christianity, and they think of it as a "religion" instead of a "relationship." How often do non-believers hear "Follow the rules." instead of "God loves you."? Or "Be as good a person as you can be." instead of "Jesus died for you and me."? Now, I'm not saying that following the rules and being a good person are bad things in themselves, but I do think it causes this mistranslation from "relationship" to "religion."

Let's take back the meaning of Christianity and not let it get lost in translation. Those non believers, and even some believers need to hear it straight from our mouths, and read it from our lips. Judgement and condemnation will not bring them to that meaning. Let's show the love of God and what having a relationship with Christ means. Meditate on this today.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:22-26 NKJV (emphasis mine)

--Lord, I pray today that I can minister or witness to someone that sees following You as a religion instead of a relationship. Let my love of You, and my relationship with You shine through, so that they don't lose the translation of what being a Christ follower is all about. I pray this for the readers of this as well. I pray these things in Jesus' Holy Name, Amen.