Espanol and Jesus

Ephesians 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I am in a continuing process of learning Spanish, so that God can use me as a more effective witness in Honduras. Six years ago, at first glance, learning Spanish seemed like an easy thing to accomplish. I reasoned with myself that there are millions of uneducated and impoverished people speaking Spanish around the globe so how hard can it be? Well, its more complicated to those of us who naturally speak English as many times we have to unlearn rules in our language as they are exclusive to English. I also did not realize how many verb tenses there are, and how many stem changing irregular conjugations that required intimate attention to learn in order to be effective. As my understanding of the language has increased, so has awareness of the depth and width of rules that must be understood and followed in the Spanish language if you desire to be fluent. I am determined though, and by God's grace I will be able to deliver the Gospel of Christ in Espanol!

Now I want to be really careful here, as the work of Christ in our lives is a divine work that he starts, nurtures and finishes, but as to our daily choice and pursuit of Christ, Paul's exhortation above somewhat parallels my pursuit of Spanish. As we learn divine Love through Christ, we become extremely aware of the vastness and complexities of His majesty that we will never fully grasp. As our hearts are enlightened by the deep Love of Christ, we realize that our natural thoughts and actions must be unlearned and sanctfied by God,if we want to walk and speak Jesus' language of Love. We also realize that Christ's ways are appropriated in our lives as we work out our faith in fear in trembling before the Lord (Phil 2:12). It is a daily digging into the rich LOve of God.

I know that in my own walk, I am amazed at how close I feel to Christ, yet am baffled by the Titanic size of His Love, Beauty and Glory that I can not fully digest. I believe that is Paul's encouragement to the Church, "Be Awed at the Divine nature of Christ and Constantly dive into His Love". It is when we are satisfied with the intimate Love of Christ that we are useful in the Kingdom of God. As we learn to speak and walk in the divine language of Christ's love, we fall deeper into love with Him, and those he has given us to love in our lives.

So search your heart and pray for a deep, rich understanding of God's love. Just like an American in Honduras who is satisfied knowing only "Como se llama?", a shallow dive into the vast pool of Christ's love ensures that there will be a lid on your efforts to reproduce Love in those around you.