” Lost in Translation”

Have you ever, played the game “broken telephone”? and often found words lost in translation, through the connection formed with the circle of friends? Well, I always wondered what did the person next to me say or mean, when it was my turn to receive and give the message. I often lost the words in translation and the message was not transmitted correctly at the end of the game. Nonetheless, I believe that communication is an essential part of our environmental connection and growth, with what we say, how we say it, when, why we say it; also when it comes to expressing our needs, our opinions, our thoughts, our emotions, and more. Even though you are a baby, a child with or without special needs, an adult, or an individual, we are drawn to communicate verbally or non-verbally and connect with the environment around us.

Furthermore, the Merriam- Webster dictionary defines that communication; is a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behaviors. When we look at this definition, we can see that communication has different components and some are verbal and non-verbal and that people also exchange different information using language. Nowadays with social media and other telecommunication platforms, many people around the world can connect without borders. The powerlines of communication spread across various cities, towns, villages, and countries to capture the signal that keeps us together “communication”. Let’s not forget that it compensate much more than we think.

Nonetheless, I wanted to further my knowledge, therefore I recently took a virtual conference which was talking about the four-color model: Communicating effectively online and in person. I recollected two important aspects of communication which are; how do we mainly communicate a message? and how communication evolved looking at the evolving models? The speaker referred, that we convey most of our interaction with 55% of our body language, 38% with our tone of voice, and 7% with our words. Moving on to the other point, which I found very interesting; about the evolving models of communication. The speaker stated that in the 1940s we had a linear way of communicating, (to understand the visual, I saw it as a one-way street), in the 1960s it was a more interactive model, (such as a two-way street) and when looking at today’s era, we have come to the transactional way of communicating (which ends up looking like multiple crossroads overlapping each other from different angles with no stop signs or lights). I am baffled at the fact that when looking into this new era, we continually overlook the concept of communication which should be in my opinion a two-way interaction where people can see the non-verbal communication or hear a person’s tone of voice or receive through words a significant message. And not base our interaction mainly using emails, texting, and emojis symbols. However, embracing our interchanging behaviors by using FaceTime, zoom, phone calls, and other platforms effectively. I feel as if, knowing that we are in 2021, we should be better at this, since we have more platforms to communicate. But I’m not sure that sometimes we don’t get the bigger picture and beauty behind effective communication using the interactive model. The speaker also made notice that the transactional model, made us overlook the purpose of communication. Because many of us are distracted by external and internal noises therefore we often don’t receive the full context of the discussion. For instance, when sometimes we are speaking to ourselves ( in our mind like what am I gonna eat today?) while someone is speaking to us, or we are texting while hearing a podcast, or hear music while speaking to someone in front of us and answering an email. We are not using our active listening skills and missing some of the transactions along the way. AND, trust me I am guilty of it at times, that I miss out on a lot more because I am not entirely focused on the conversation while entertaining some thoughts, or other insignificant noises. It seems as if I was training my brain to multi-communicate which to my understanding is an ineffective style, in the long run, because someone or something gets lost in translation. We also see that texting has mainly taken away our ability to interpret a tone of voice or gestures therefore many highly rely on our emojis to interpret a message. But I see that it defeats the whole purpose of genuine connections. I feel as if we desperately need to go back to more effective communication styles by using the interactive model. Where there can be a two-way interaction and minimize the external and internal noises around as much as possible which are hindering the quality of the communicated ideas, thoughts, messages, etc. Once you practice, mindfulness and reflection, I believe we can manage the way we communicate with each other more effectively.

God, being omnipresent, wants to connect with us on so many levels. He wants us to build a relationship with him using communication which is a notion He established since the beginning of time. The same way God used communication with Adam in the garden of Eden, he wants to solidify the same baseline with us. God intended to have communion with his creation with an interactive element and not as artificial beings. God understands our hearts and observes our nonverbals to better establish a report using communication. God initiated communication when He spoke to Adam and told him what he expected of him. We can see it in, Genesis 2:16-18 “16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.18 And the LORD God said It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him”. In this last verse, God saw Adam’s heart and observed the non-verbals of Adam, also saw that he should not be alone so he provided for his need. Furthermore, Adam was in constant communication with God even when he did something wrong. We can see in Genesis 3:9-10; Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. At that moment, Adam was afraid because he was worried about what God would say; not understanding that God wanted him to tell him the truth, and repent from the bottom of his heart but Adam let shame and pride overwhelm his heart and which shied away from his communion with God. So he hid from God. He did not want to communicate with his creator because he was ashamed of his sin and allowed worry and other interferences to burden his heart away from God to speak to him. The same as with Adam, we often see ourselves in that state of mind, hiding to communicate with God while he’s been calling us to talk with him. Another example shows when God spoke to Cain, He said to Cain why are you angry? In Genesis  4:6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? This verse looks as if He was saying to Cain, talk to me, I see you are not happy, let us communicate tell me what’s in your heart, talk to me my son because I can help you just tell me what’s in your heart. Henceforth, praying is what we refer to as communicating, speaking to God about the deepest concerns, issues, joy, accomplishments, and all matters of our hearts. He is looking for our attention but we are often distracted by the internal and external noises that we often lose our innate ability to have interactive communication with our Creator. God wants to share and communicate with us using His word, His spirit, and more. Besides, He wants to show us love, compassion, foreignness, peace, and many more other blessings. But where are we ?, What are we doing with our time? Has social media taken away our precious time? We can see in Psalm 51: 17 says that “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise to spend with God, praying and speaking to him about our heartfelt needs and request”. He also refers to, Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. But we often get the message lost in translation and stop focusing on God, who knows all things and sees all things”. We can see in Psalms 139: 1-6 which says; “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You ^[a]comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have ^[b]hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it. We can see how His word is pure and can discern our actions the intents of our hearts as it is written in Hebrew 4: 12; “¹² For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. In the end, God is calling us to connect with him again and not hiding behind the shadows of our fears but to connect through a simple prayer line. He wants to hear from you and cares for your needs, just like a parent does for their child, even if they do something good or bad.

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 1 John 3:20.

Inspired Scriptures:

Genesis 2:16-18, Genesis  4:6, Philippians 4:6, Psalms 139: 1-6, Hebrew 4: 12, 1 John 3:20, Psalm 51:17.

Words of encouragement

I want to encourage someone, to communicate with God which is what we refer to as prayer, speak to him, let your request made known. Pray for someone you know who needs help, support, etc. He hears you and knows the deeper intention of your heart. Use your basic skill to communicate and connect with Him on another level. Let all distractions aside and spend some quality time in His presence, trust me you will be liberated, feel peace and receive from Him as your heart is set to receive with your faith and belief in Him. Stay connected and I encourage that someone uses the interactive model when communicating with our Creator, so come with a heart to receive from Him. I just want to share with you, what God has done for me. When growing up, as a middle child, I often felt lost in the siblings’ jumble mumble, just like the broken telephone game. I can recall that by the time my request was made known it was often put to the side, miss understood, and miss communicated. Therefore, I often practiced observation as a developed skill and I ended up, unable to convey my thoughts, emotions effectively at that time. As a result, I withdrew myself, which portrayed a very obedient and well-mannered child in the eyes of my parents and family members. I was always afraid of what someone would say, or often had the feeling of being judged, or even just allowed fear to overwhelm my ability to express myself in various ways. That single notion of “fear” followed me for quite some time, leading to my adult years. This startled, my ability to communicate effectively. Furthermore, I was frequently rejected and bullied at school for stuttering and not being able to read and write properly because I struggled with dyslexia as a learning disability. Therefore, I dreaded reading and writing especially when I was dealing with mathematical assignments. I often stumbled in my speech which felt, as if I had a mental hiccup or a cognitive glitch. Consequently, I could not put a word in place and I often would say something different from what I originally thought about. I can go on about this but you can only imagine how my conversations were sometimes calculated as if I was walking on eggshells. Sadly, I allowed my disability to take over by anxiety and lack of self-esteem. As a teenager and growing young adult, it was as difficult therefore one of my ultimate goals was to develop my communication skills at all levels. My eagerness to learn allowed me to grow personally, professionally, and spiritually. Although I use to oppress myself with negative ideas and self-fulfilling prophecies, therefore I surrender to God and I invited Him in my life, and my thoughts, to help me defeat this language processing disorder which was enabling me to express myself accordingly.

Prayer

Dear God, my Heavenly Father, my Creator, my present help in times of need. God, you are an amazing God and I thank you for taking away the fear in me and replacing it with boldness to speak up about your goodness in the lives of many. You are powerful in all your ways, I see how you communicate with me, responding to my heartfelt desires. You made me weep like a child this week because you showed me how you understand the desires of my heart and you wanted to give me clarity and understanding of your perfect will. You thought me how to wait on you and dive deeper in love with you, my heart could not stop praising you in the morning, afternoon, and evening. I thank you for the heart of worship you gave me and the ability to communicate effectively with You; using your powerful words. I pray that someone can do the same out there. I pray that someone can receive from this blog and be bless and have the desire to know you more or go deeper in their walk with you. Thank you for accepting my imperfections and allowing me to grow each day. I love you, and thank you for it all, In Jesus Name Amen.

And,

P.S Jesus Loves You