Language
Recently I went to a training event on working with suicidal people within the counselling arena. The trainer, a very talented woman of many years experience recognised that there was going to be a lot of students in the group beforehand. In talking about it with me she said that for the students the biggest problem is that they don’t have a language for dealing with such an immediate crisis. In response to that she would demonstrate what to say or do through a role play which she herself would facilitate. As a result we thankfully left knowing the type of things to say and what direction to head in.

I’ve often failed to have an appropriate language for situations life throws at me. I’ve often wondered how God would want me to respond. Having then come to a conclusion on what the answer would be I then failed to match it with any language/response that I could use. The problem is our society teaches us to think about oneself at all times, to defend your rights and ensure that you are respected.
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This week in the gym I was going hell for leather. I had done an hour’s aerobic exercise with my heart pumping along at an average of 145bpm. In short I was dripping with sweat and looked like I had been standing in the rain for an hour. I was standing catching my breath listening to my iPod when this woman without excusing herself or asking me to move got down on the ground only inches away from me and started to do an abdominal workout. In doing so she blocked my exit and pinned me into a small area. If I didn’t want to interrupt her as she worked out I would need to walk along the wall of the gym and then squeeze myself between some cross trainers which I did.

As I climbed over the machines I heard this loud outraged cry “You ignorant cow”. I was raging but too embarrassed to either ask her to move or challenge her. As I simmered down I wondered how God would respond, no doubt with compassion but what language would he use? How would he physically and orally respond? I’ve no idea and so my prayers have focused of late on requesting a re-education of language. If I want to respond how he would, I’ll need it.