A friend of mine has been emotionally wounded. The thing is . . . he says the people that have hurt him the most are people who follow the ways of Christ. Of course . . . you and I are not included in this. . . except . . . I think that a lot of hurt goes on that is not communicated . . . it is not by intention . . . but by assumption.
It seems to me that as communication changes and we communicate less face to face and more through technology . . . yes . . . like I am doing right now . . . that we tend to assume what a person is trying to say rather than confirming what we understand . . . which is a LOT OF WORK . . . and most of us are too busy to work that hard at communicating. And . . . we often assume that people know what we are talking about . . . but . . . they often have no idea what we were really trying to say. . . miscommunication occurs . . . and someone gets hurt.
So, how do we repair communication mishaps?
Look at what Elijah did . . . he talked . . . he brought a message . . . and still the prophets of Baal were ranting . . . trying to get some sign that their belief in Baal was okay . . . Elijah understood that he had not communicated in way that the people could understand their need of a relationship with God, Yahweh.
He communicated by demonstration . . . he showed the message that had been within his own heart . . . communicating what was important.
The people would not give their whole heart to God . . . they needed to surrender their rebellion . . . their hearts needed to be repaired through a relationship with God . . . they were broken and wounded people without a relationship with God. The story indicates the altar, the place of surrender, had been damaged. Elijah repaired the altar, which was a radical activity for anyone in the ancient days. Think about the people watching Elijah repair the altar . . . in their culture they knew it was highly unusual. . . rarely done. . . that it was one of the most sacred places . . . the place of surrender to God.
When it comes down to it . . . the most effective way to communicate is by demonstration. We not only speak our message . . . we live out what is important . . . we demonstrate what is on our heart by our actions. Hearts will be repaired when people see our message being lived out.
Are you willing to do some repair work even if you think you did nothing wrong?
Begin at the altar . . . do your own repair work . . . then choose to repair relationships through demonstration as well as words.
Determine the heart of your message.
Live out your message.
Learning with you to repair through my actions as well as words,
Shalom,
Kerrie
(All devotions written by Kerrie Palmer ©2008 All Rights Reserved)
