A woman went to see a lawyer.
Woman: I want a divorce.
Lawyer: What are your grounds?
Woman: We have two acres on the edge of town with a big lawn and fruit trees.
Lawyer: No. I mean do you have a grudge?
Woman: We have a two car garage, but only have one car so the rest is storage.
Lawyer (getting frustrated): Does your husband beat you up?
Woman: No. I get up at 6:30 and sometimes he doesn’t get up until 8:00.
Lawyer (exasperated): WHY DO YOU WANT A DIVORCE?
Woman: We just don’t seem to communicate anymore.
We laugh loudest at jokes with a thread of truth in them and this is no exception. As a corporate trainer, I taught my trainees the importance of good communication skills, not only with customers, coworkers and supervisors; but especially with those in our personal life. I found that even those who can express themselves well often have not developed good listening skills. So much vital information is lost. Communication must be two way to be effective.
In this age of technology, we text and tweet instead of calling or stopping by. Those forms of communicating might be convenient, but they are the easiest to be misunderstood. There is no tone of voice or facial expression to help put things in context. We tend to keep it short without full explanation. We know what we mean, but do they? I don’t tweet, but I text to friends who prefer that. I try to text only to those who know me personally and even then I have been misunderstood. Even when we do converse in person, one of the biggest problems is that we don’t carefully listen in order to learn about the other person, but instead simply to help us decide what we should say next.
How does all of this apply to our Christian life? James (Jesus’ brother) tells us, “Understand this my dear brothers and sisters. You must be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” That puts communication in the proper order of importance. To have a relationship with God, we need to have two way communications with Him. Prayer is our main means of communication. The good news is that we don’t have to worry about being misunderstood by God. He knows us better than we know ourselves. What is important is that we learn to understand God and get to know Him personally. He speaks to us as we read and study His word. We feel His presence during worship or even as we take a “nature walk” through His creation. He speaks to us with the still small voice of His Holy Spirit within us. We need to learn to listen with our soul and not just our ears. I have pointed out before that when we pray without taking time to listen to God’s response; we are just leaving a message on His voicemail with the hope He will get back to us.