Language

When I was in Ghana, I was touched at how impressed people were when I said a simple word like "medaase" (thank you) in the local language of Twi. To me, thank you is one of the first expressions you learn in any language and shouldn't be too much of an accomplishment after living in a place for four months. The Ghanians disagreed. They told me that most people who had lived there for years hadn't learned how to speak a word of Twi because most Ghanians spoke enough English to get by. I was saddened by the attitude of people who forced a native people to speak another language instead of trying to learn the native language of the place they had chosen to call home. But even more, I was moved by how much it meant to a Ghanian that I had made an effort to learn even one word of Twi. They immediately felt I had accepted them and was willing to make a little bit of effort to get to know them. They showed me how important it is to communicate to someone in their own language.
I was just thinking - it is very rare to find a person who is completely fluent in a second language, to the point where they understand all the nuances and richness of that language. They might pretend they do and be able to understand enough that it would never occur to you that they sometimes wondered what you were talking about, but in most cases communication will never be the same. Then I thought about how in the Middle Ages all church services were conducted in Latin. I thought of people like William Tyndale who gave their life to the pursuit of translating the Scriptures into the language of the people. We can understand God's spirit even if we don't understand the language, but there's something about hearing about God in a way that we can understand on a very deep and personal level.
I'm so grateful that God speaks every language, and comes to us in a way we can intimately understand. He doesn't ask us to learn anything or go through any strict formulas to be able to get to Him - He bridges the gap.
I guess that's why I'm so obsessed with learning every language I can, because I want to be like Jesus and be the one to make the effort to communicate His love to the world.