Did you ever play telephone as a kid? You know, the game where everyone sits in a circle and one person starts by whispering a short phrase into the ear of the person beside them, then the phrase gets passed along as it’s whispered from one ear to another, until finally it reaches the first person. You can only whisper it once, and whatever the person thinks they heard is what they have to say to the next person.
That’s how “The original Star Wars trilogy is so much better than the second” can become “My car’s trilobite goes a meter every second”.
If only we took a lesson from high society New York reporters and their boyfriends who live in the Australian outback:
Mick Dundee and Sue Charlton – models of communication.
Passing Things Along
The Bible stresses the value of passing information along from person to person. Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites were told:
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 11:18-19.)
This pattern bore fruit throughout the generations and carried that fruit into life under the New Covenant, as we see in Paul’s comment to his young friend Timothy:
I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. (2 Timothy 1:5.)
What effort do you put into communicating? Are you like Sue Charlton, willing to shout into a crowd and use those near her to reach the man she loves even though he’s far away?
What are you communicating? Are you spreading the gospel through your words and actions?
Whether in a whisper or a shout, to our family or a stranger on the street, God cares about what we say and what that says about him.
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Good reminder to “use our words” wisely, Tim.
Yes we should, Jeannie. Whether calling out over a crowd or chatting quietly by the side of a water well, our speech can be effective for the gospel.
Good thoughts, Tim. This reminds me of the importance of the content we are communicating. So often, people think that if our intentions were good, then all is okay. Maybe the last person in the telephone game communicated their gobbledy-gook in a sincere fashion, but that doesn’t make it worthy of passing down the line.
Sincere gobbledy-gook: there’s another blog post in there somewhere, Aimee!
What was that again? Your czar’s gorilla bites good readers every second? 🙂
Great post, Tim. Good communication is vital and it certainly does take effort!
That’s a good one, Adriana!
I always enjoyed playing telephone as a kid.
Of course second only to good communication to good old Dundee, is making sure you have a proper knife.
To be serious though, this is pretty important. It isn’t only important that we get our communication clear, but also that we take the time to listen to what others communicate too.
Listening well is more than half the job at communicating, isn’t it JM?
Indeed, but often the most forgotten part.
And knowing our audience is very important. We are to be all things to all people.
Good addendum, Gwen.