Language... who needs it anyway?

I can't count how many times in the last two months I have wanted to wring the necks of the instigators who thought the tower of babel was a good idea.  Seriously!  I have never really given it much thought, but now?  Now I would love to have a few words with them.

Language.  How often do we really think about it.  We talk, that's what we do.  We use words, we get what we want/need, and we go on with our lives.

Words.  We use words all day every day to express our thoughts and opinons.  We speak to family, friends, co-workers, cashiers, passer-bys, and strangers.

I never realized how flippantly I use my words.  I never realized how I under estimate the power of language.  I never realized until I moved to an foreign country where I don't speak their language.  Now, I view things a bit differently.

I understand now how I have taken language for granted.  Right now, I need help to talk to anyone outside the gates of my home.  Sure, I can go places and purchase items as long as the cash register has a digital reading of the cost and store clerk doesn't ask me any questions.  

I often feel like a small child who desperately wants or needs something but can only point and grunt to get it.

Okay, that last statement is an over exaggeration of sorts.  I actually do know how to ask for some things.  I can say please and thank you.  I can have a somewhat comprehensible ONE sided inconsistent conversation.  That is, I can tell you things about myself but I'm not very good at asking questions yet and I am far from being able to understand 75% of what is said to me.

How's that for honesty.  

Language.  It's a odd and fickle things at times.

There are rules.  But the number of exceptions is staggering.

There are proper sentence structures and so many verb tenses I have lost count.  

There are this, that, and the other.  Oh and don't forget the thisthatandotherthing!

Learning another language is by far the most complicated thing I have every set out to do.  Granted, I have not tried many complicated tasks in my life due to this little thing called fear.  And some times the only sounds that come out of my mouth is the sound of cries.  It's hard.

I wish I had a creative connection between language learning and something else that could explain what I am trying to say.  But there isn't.  Language learning is a thing all it's own.  No comparisons will find a place in helping to describe.  Someone in class asked our instructor if small French children make the same mistakes we do when they begin learning to speak.  He laughed and said, No.  He followed it up with, You can't compare yourself to children, they just learn it as they go.   

Learn as you go.  What a wonderful yet not remotely possible concept for us.  We need to learn it all, and learn it now.  As we go, is a privilege we don't get.

I am a slower learner in the area of studies.  You know, all the stuff you learn in school.  But ask me to build you something, give me tools and a sheet of paper with pictures on it and you will have your desk/table/bed/bookshelf/you name it in no time.  Ask me to create you something using a sewing machine and fabric and you will have a skirt/dress/curtains/doll in no time.  Give me a glue gun and glue sticks and the possibilities are endless.  Give me a few mason jars and I'll have a new decore scheme for your house.  Ask me to organize your house and I will have a diagram with storage ideas and efficient space usage for you tomorrow.  Ask me to stand in front of 10,000 people and tell them why I love Africa and I would nearly explode with excitement!

However, ask me to conjugate this verb using that verb tense and add in a few adjectives on the side, out loud in class and my heart races, my palms get sweaty and the tears begin to well up.  Then tell me I got the answer wrong when I attempted to answer and the anger flares up on the inside. 

Have you ever heard the saying, "God does not call the equipped, He equips the called."

That about sums it up folks.  He equips the called.  Right now I feel like learning French is on the miracle level as the parting of the Red Sea.  

But what did the parting of the Red Sea do?  It freed God's people.  

Did you get that?  Let me say it again.  Through God parting the Red Sea, He freed His people from hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt.  God equipped a weak, at times faithless, stutterer named Moses to lead His people out of slavery!

Call me crazy, but in the times when my faith is strong [read: WEAK] I have the audacity to believe that through God teaching me the French language He is going to use me to set the captives free.  That through God enabling me to learn the French language He is equipping me to lead His people out of darkness and into light. 

Revelation 12:11 says, "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death."  This verse has come to life in such a new way for me lately.  What is God saying here?  God is proclaiming that believers will overpower Satan by the blood of Jesus [the forgiveness of sins] and by the word {Physically SPEAKING using language} of their testimony [the declaration of what God has done in your life]. 

Me?  

Yes, even me.

Language is kinda a big deal.  Good thing God is a good teacher!