Heart Language

Two particular conversations with friends over the past week really got me to thinking about several threads that have been weaving themselves through the fabric of my thoughts over the past several years.

Wycliffe Raises Questions
First, my friend is now preparing to go overseas with Wycliffe Bible Translators. It has been so fascinating for me to watch her go through this whole process and learn with her about Bible Translating. Wycliffe realizes the power of the Word as revealed through his written word. Their focus, then, becomes putting the word of God into the heart language of people groups, and in fact, has as a goal to have it in the language of all people groups. After reading and watching videos about their work, I am more impressed with the speciial significance to the people groups of having the Word in their language. Alongside Bible Translating, Wycliffe does work in ethnomusicology. They maintain that music is not the universal language, but rather peoples have different music styles, etc., that speak to them. In their study of ethnic music, they find ways that people groups can worship through their own methods. Their heart music.

An interesting question that has rolled around in my head concerns literal versus thought-for-thought translation. I have always automatically been drawn toward literal translation with no exceptions. Consider, however, the tribe in the jungle who has never seen snow. What meaning do they attach to "your sins will be white as snow"? Jesus seemd to speak in stories that resonated with his culture. Bring that attitude home then. What about translations such as the Message and the New Living Translation? I am inclined to hold English speakers to a higher standard, but is that merely my middle-class snobbery? God's word is powerful indeed, for it "strips the forest bare." I am still drawn to "better" translations like the ESV and NASB, but rightfully? Is there a line over which we cross into diminishing the Gospel's effectiveness by human frailty, or is our concern actually lack of faith in the power of God in salvation? Sigh.

Relevancy in the Church

While I have done minimal study on this particular subject, I am intrigued by the rising movement known as Emergent Theology. As far as I can tell, they are growing groups of Christians concerned about the rise of post-modernism and what they perceive as the church's failuer in adequately responding. Therefore, they propose what they call "new ways" of responding through worship and evangelism, etc. On the one hand, I am leary both of motives and methods of such a group (or conglomeration of groups), especially when using terms like "new," when there is nothing new under the sun, not even post-modernism. For another thing, I cringe to think that the motive might be to make Christianity more appealing (so as to grow in numbers and have similar goals) approaching a more "seeker-friendly" mode. The Gospel, even Christ himself, is offensive and divisive. There is a balance that is sometimes hard to find. So as I study this movement more, I may find different motives, goals and methods, but intend to ask hard questions to really figure out what they are trying to say and do.

On the other hand, I find myself nearly ready to jump on board with such thinking. As I sat in church this summer, at times I found myself thinking, "Is this my Christianity?" with an embarrassed grimace. I almost feel as though mainstream evangelicalism has taken on a Kraft macaroni mentality- very comfortable, easy, and ultimately, very cheesy. I always hate to be critical of the church because I find often that criticism of the church often leads to bitterness and separation, when Christ called us to love and serve the church. However often I fail, my desire is that if a person is turned away from Christianity, he has stumbled on Christ and teh Gospel and not the manner by which we have presented it.

Anyway....Worship wars continue to rage. In addition, I sometimes feel that as Christians (and more so in conservative circles) we sometimes choose something just because it's "old" and not because it's biblical. Back on track, though, it happened to be the music that particularly made me grimace. We would sing a hymn, but it might be one of those gospel songs that everyone knows and older generations love. As I consider the words, I think, what does this mean? Some of those hymns are so fluffy and meaningless, and yet they are old favorites. Huh. And the conversely, some of the praise songs we sang were equally as embarrassing and empty. At times, we didn't even sing the new, hipper songs, either, but flashed-back to the 80s. Yikes. I guess what really got me about these songs was this: perhaps they are comfortable and familiar songs but if a non-believer was at church that week, what would they think? I especially thought about the high school generation, that is so world-weary, bitter and dark in so many ways. Are teenage skater boys drawn in by the feminized praise songs? I am not advocating seeker-friendliness by any means, but perhaps our methods are worth considering. I sometimes fear that our presentation of the gospel is the stumbling block and not Christ himself. Consider again the work of the ethnomusicologist who says that music is not the universal language. So what music speaks to our generation?

I guess what this all means to me as far as the church is a challenge to the church and myself. The world out there is changing, perhaps not evolving into something new, but is changing. Are we as a church engaging that culture? Are we listening to its heartbeat and asking good questions? Are finding the heart language of our youth, risking relationship with them, and feeding them Christ. We have this tendency to throw cheesy phrases and chic tracks at people rather than risk meeting them heart to heart. Adults, at times, though ready to impress upon youth the majesty of Christ, fail to measure the heartbeat whose rhythm is not his own. We all too often stand on the precipice above shouting down to the raging sea, "Just swim!...not that way....Kick your legs!" rather than diving in, just to say, "I am here with you. We can swim this one together." I believe that is what our youth especially needs, adults willing to listen and find their heart language and speak in a way that upholds the gospel but does not diminish their hearts. I know I did.

Training Up Hearts

This topic of heart languages seems also to tie in very strongly with my new job. I am almost overwhelmed at the enormity and responsibility of teaching a class of seven 5th/6th graders, not only to be responsible for giving them knowledge, but to teach their hearts and share in the work of conforming their character to Christ's. It is very humbling work.

I am amazed at the creativity of God in creating each of these children, and how their backgrounds, choices and experiences (of which I know so little) have formed them. And I realize that I am dealing with seven distinct and impressionable hearts that yearn (sometimes in ignorance) for the love of Christ, and how inadequate I am for the task of feeding them. I must remind myself that however much I have "matured" or moved on in the experiences of life, nothing is so important to their hearts as what they are feeling at this time, even if is something as seemingly small as a playground squabble. I must by careful oberservation and interaction to hear and to speak their distinct heart languages, and to love them. What a task! I sometimes think I can get lazy and throw empty, detached words at students, like "God told us to love each other so that's what you should do." That may be true, but I opt for the easy way rather than asking good questions about what might be going on in their heart, and learning to lead their desires to Christ. Sometimes, that just can't be done with words.

I have found that children have wonderful minds, and that I can teach a child to memorize anything or learn a math concept so easily. What requires more work is to train their hearts. One of the major roadblocks to this work is my own heart. I can trace my perception of situations or reactions to students back to my own assumptions and experiences. Praise God that he is strongest in our weakness.

So, these ramblings might be just that...and more scattered than I actually intended. But as I wrote extensively in my thesis, I believe that the heart is so important, in training and discipling kids, in relating to friends and in understanding ourselves. Rather than letting our own experiences, knowledge and assumptions dictate, it is so important (and really a delight) to undertake the risky task of understanding and learning to speak another's heart language.