When God Speaks Spanish

The full title should be “When God Speaks in Spanish to me” but that seemed too wordy of a title.  This past week, I feel like I finally pushed through a plateau in language learning.

Both on Tuesday night prayer meeting as well as Sunday evening church, I actually comprehended what others were saying.  It was truly marvelous, and a gift from God.

To be sure, I believe the Holy Spirit was helping me understand because it was things I needed to hear from Him.  One of those was to keep our eyes focused on things above, not on things below.

It’s so easy to get our eyes focused on the wrong things, isn’t it?  Not necessarily bad things, but things that can nevertheless distract us from what’s most important if we’re not careful.

We live in this world and so it’s natural to focus on what’s right in front of us.  That person we can’t stand at work, how our kids or neighbors are driving us nuts, money problems, the list goes on and on.  All of these things can so easily distract us if we’re not vigilant.

How do we keep our focus on things above?  A good start is to stay in the Word on a regular basis.  Morning times have been ridiculed as of late as being legalistic or something of that nature.  It can surely become legalistic if we’re not careful.  However, if I don’t have quiet time in the morning the rest of the day slips through my fingers.  Plus if I can start the day off in the Bible it helps me see the rest of my day and the world through a different lens.

One passage implores us to pray continually.  At first glance this seems impossible, but perhaps our view of prayer is too narrow.  The classic image of an older gentleman sitting at a table with his head bowed and hands folded is what normally comes to mind when I think of prayer.  However, prayer can be an ongoing conversation with God throughout the day.  The key word being conversation - as in half of it should be listening.

What does God want to say to us in our day to day living?  Does He want to speak to you in your native language or perhaps a second language to better get your attention?  :)  May we all learn to listen to what God wants to tell us in our everyday living.

Failing & Humility

When I was on my wife’s FB account this morning (we share it actually) I saw a memory from a year ago that was a blog I had posted about my ‘first fail.’  I was referring to a test I had taken in language school in Salamanca.

It brought back some fun memories and reminded me of just how much I’ve been humbled since being here.  I took business classes in Salamanca at the university (in English) just to feel like I was actually succeeding at something instead of the constant failing I was ‘achieving’ in language school.

Sometimes I joke with our teammates here that apparently God needs to teach  me humility because I fail in language every day.  At least I’m to the point now when I know I’m messing up, well, maybe half the time haha

It’s good to fail on a regular basis, at least I keep telling myself that.  God continues to show me His grace and I’m continually reminded that it’s not about my abilities but about my willingness just to be here in a small pueblo.  A small pueblo with about half of which are Mus**** and the other half have only a small attachment to Catholicism with a giant dose of earned skepticism due to the history of the Church here in Spain.

So, I’ll keep failing every day as long as God can use it.  It’s good to be reminded of just how much I depend on Him for even a basic thing like language.  If I take the metaphor a bit further, it reminds me He’s a Father and I’m an infant learning to crawl.  He’s not disappointed in me but rather delights in watching me take the next step, whether that’s in language or in my pursuit of Him.