YourHub.com \\ Tri-Lakes \\ Stories \\ Faith \\ General Faith

Sunday Sermon: God's Communicators

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

Contributed by: Carl Dietz on 2/10/2008

If you are like most people, you are more familiar with preaching and teaching than you are with reaching out to develop understanding between people. Often we reach out only if we sense we can convert somebody to our own way of thinking, instead of reaching out to learn from them. And why shouldn't we convert others to our way of thinking? If we truly believe what we work so hard to defend, shouldn't we ask others to think as we think?

Reaching out to another person is not the same as imparting information, even if the information is our most treasured belief. Reaching out is about communicating, and communicating is a two way street. You must learn to understand other people if you are going to communicate with them. But before Iwrite about what it really means to communicate, lets examine some of the alternatives to communication:

One alternative is to communicate "to" someone, like a radio tower communicates with a radio receiver. One party sends (and sends, and sends) while the other party listens and listens.

Another alternative to real communication is to "correct" the person you are trying to reach. This is a common practice of parents when speaking seriously to their children. The technique works like this: We listen just enough to grasp their central message (i.e., how they are wrong), waiting our turn to speak, then we use our more extensive experience to guide them and correct their thinking.

A third alternative to communication has been growing more popular every year for decades. We simply join a group that thinks the way we think. Once we are committed to a "side", we can simply ask people which side they are on. No muss, no fuss. We easily separate the right from the wrong, the informed from the ignorant, the saved from the unsaved, etc.

Why do I call the three techniques above "alternatives" to communication? Because communication is more difficult and more time consuming than informing, correcting, or siding with others. Communication seeks to understand the logical associations of the other person, as well as the assumptions supporting their logic. Deep communication even seeks to know the reasons why the other person put faith in the assumptions they made. If you can not explain the reasons another person has made certain assumptions to that persons satisfaction, the two of you have not communicated deeply. Eventually you will both be stuck with the alternatives to communication. On the world stage, you could even go to war.

Do we really need to communicate when we reach out to others? The answer is no we don't. We can reach out by giving of ourselves, by volunteering to serve others, or by working in earnest for something we believe in. There is great value in service. But truly great leaders ask more of their followers than service. They urge their followers to understand all points of view and encourage common ground to grow between all sides. Recall that the Latin root " communio" means "common ground".

Our world is more complicated than at any time in history. There is no debate about that. Keeping in mind Jesus words, "Blessed are the peacemakers", are we really asking too much of ourselves to suspend our judgments as we listen, and open our hearts to understanding as we reach out to others? A philosopher once observed, "We cannot understand another person if we do not find a path on which to agree with them, yet we often agree with another person without understanding them simply by aligning with them for a short time."

We should examine our own communication habits to learn whether we are really trying to understand others or whether we simply agree or disagree with their ideas for political reasons. While at first it seems challenging to learn the reasons others think differently or the same as we think, improving our understanding of others improves our ability to reach out as one of God's Communicators. There is much room in today's world for new understandings, but we may have all become too busy to practice understanding or compassion for the people we disagree with. Let's pray that we can learn from and understand others when we reach out.

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Current Rating

Based on 2 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.

Showing 1 of 1 comments

Submitted By: Megan Riley

posted on 2/10/2008 @ 8:45:27 AM

Rated Story

My Lord Jesus instructs me to love my enemies. I believe his message of love. But most of my friends focus on "good stewardship" of their money, which makes almost every selfish thing they say sound loving. They don't need to understand anyone except their financial planner. Your sermon reminds me to listen, thank you.

[Report as objectionable]

Showing 1 of 1 comments

CONTRIBUTOR INFO

Carl Dietz

Monument , CO

Carl Dietz has posted 4 stories and 1 comment since joining on 2/7/2008. Carl Dietz 's average story rating is 5.

view profile » view other postings from Carl Dietz »