Ping Pong Communication

Being in India and trying to communicate with people is funny. I think it's probably this way in any sort of cross-cultural communication. In normal life, when you communicate with someone you know well or with whom you have a general understanding, communication can feel very two way. You pick up on non-verbal cues, body language, you understand how the other person is reacting to what you say and you know how to communicate with them to subtly indicate your response to what they are saying.

But in India, it doesn't feel that way. It feels more like a ping-pong game. You figure out the clearest way to say something you'd like to communicate and lob it over the net. Then you just wait to see how it was received. In return, you receive some equally-hard-to-decipher lob from the other person trying to put his comment over the cross-cultural net as well. And so you take turns lobbing attempts at communication until you feel reasonably sure that your intended meaning was received. Or, as is more often the case, you give up and just wait to see what will happen based on the communication you've had so far. Maybe the ball will drop your way, maybe not. At any rate, communication here is tricky. Single sided attempts to lob your meaning into someone else's court, hoping they get your meaning, knowing they probably don't.

It's funny: that makes me think of the Bible. I suppose that it is a lot like that as well. God's communication to us is usually not a two-way conversation that hums along full of mutual understanding and respect. God communicated Himself, to be sure. He went so far as to incarnate Himself: the most extreme measure possible to ensure that the meaning of His message of love was understood as easily as possible. And yet, the Bible is, and Jesus is as well, kind of like a conversation lob. Something thrown into our court over a very tall net of cross-cultural complexities and obscurities. And God waits for us to respond, hoping that we'll get the meaning of His message, giving us the very ability to do so.

And yet God knows that His communication will be successful. Isaiah 55:11 says, "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Wow. I wish I could say that about my communication in India. But I keep learning and keep trying and just maybe learn something of God's heart in the process.