Food for Thought: Communication

A new Wal-Mart checkout clerk was not familiar with the colloquialisms of the region to which she had recently moved.  She became exasperated when customer after customer would not answer an either/or question.  One after another would say, “That‘ll be fine.”  The sales associate could never tell which choice the customer was making.  For example, she asked one woman if she wanted her jug of milk in a bag or left out.  The woman said the usual, “That’ll be fine.” only to complain when the associate left the milk jug un-bagged.  The woman said, “But I wanted it in a bag!  Did you want me to shout it or put it in writing?”  To which the check-out clerk responded calmly, “That’ll be fine.”

All too often we assume that others will understand us when we use regional customary terms.  When we lived near Boston, my husband and I would stop by the local Duncan Donuts shop for a cup of coffee on our way to church some Sunday mornings.  I would order a decaf coffee and invariably the person taking my order would ask, “Regular?” and I would say, “No, decaf!”  And he would look at me as if I were stupid.  Finally, a local patron told me that he was asking me if I wanted cream and sugar, which apparently was considered “regular”.  I felt very embarrassed, but was also relieved that I had finally learned why we were both confused, even though we were both speaking English.  Interacting in a foreign language can often be even more confusing.

Communicating with people who do not have a familiarity with the Bible can sometimes feel like we are speaking a foreign language.  Those of us who grew up hearing Bible stories and preaching forget that people who did not, are likely to have problems understanding concepts such as a virgin birth or salvation through the death and resurrection of a God become man.  This is why missionaries have to become familiar with the local customs and ways of thinking and speaking in order to find a way to make the Bible understandable.  This is true even when we are speaking with someone who’s language and everyday experiences are similar to ours.  We have to remember that their background may be very different from ours.  We can take a clue from the apostle Paul who said:

“To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.” 1 Corinthians 9:20