By Danny Minton

Idioma, langue, sprache, lingua, glossa. What language do you understand? Spanish? French? German? Italian? Koine Greek? By the way, the word “language” is present for all of them in the first sentence (at least if my search was correct). I’m not fluent in any language and often even struggle to understand what people are trying to say in English, much less another language.

I will say that I have studied several languages. In high school, I took two years of Spanish and have Rosetta Stone on my computer to try to refresh what I once knew. During my first semester in college, I decided to try another language and took a semester of French. The one thing I remember is how to order a steak and fries at a restaurant. My longest tenure of learning a language was my minor degree in Koine Greek. Koine Greek was a little easier since it’s considered a “dead” language, so I didn’t have to learn to speak it; I just had to learn to read it. I can add one semester of Hebrew to this list from my graduate school experience. 

The language barrier is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome when traveling to another country. It becomes particularly true when a foreigner tries to learn American English. It can be confusing when learning about their, there, and they’re, or read, reed, and red. It’s easy to misinterpret language. “They’re hoping their ride is there when they arrive,” or “He read the label on the red reed he couldn’t read before.”  

Many of you may be fluent in other languages. However, there are languages that are more important if we are to be caring followers of Christ. These are the languages of the hurting, the confused, the lonely, the despondent, the lost, the frustrated, the frightened, or those in crisis. These are not foreign languages to understand the words, but languages to understand what is going on in someone’s life. They are languages that give us insight into a person’s heart and soul. 

These are not languages that we speak, but rather those that we listen to carefully for us to understand what is being said or felt. Caring followers listen not only to the words but the feelings behind them, the tears that may come, the angry tone or desperate air that entangle their words. We listen not merely to words, but feelings and emotions. These are the languages of a person’s heart.

The Psalmists ask God over and over to “listen to my cry” or “listen to my prayer.” In other words, they ask God to listen to their heart. Sometimes listening comes in silence. Jesus listened to the heart of the woman who wiped his feet with her tears. He listened to the cry of the cripple who was lowered through the roof. He listened to a woman who touched his robe in a crowd. He listened to the heart of a man who hung beside him on a cross. They were speaking a language to Jesus—a language of hurt, loss, loneliness, and despair. 

People often struggle to put into words what they need, want, or feel. That is why we must learn the languages of those who are hurting. We must learn the language of people who cannot express in mere words what their heart is trying to say.

I am not fluent in any language. I know bits and pieces of some and can pick out a word here and there in a conversation. I can read my Greek text and understand it well enough to study it, but I still rely on my reference books. These are all good for my knowledge and study. I’m glad I took the time to study them.

More important for us is to learn to read the language of people; To see the language of their heart; To understand the language of their soul. When we can empathize with them, understand what they are struggling with, and are in touch with what they are going through, then, at that moment, we can speak their language and understand it. When we understand it, we can communicate effectively and help them heal.

νυνι δε μενει πιστις, ελπις, αγαπη, τα τρια ταυτα μειζων δε τουτων η αγαπη.

“But now remains faith, hope, love, these three; and greater of these love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13

When we look past the physical language and listen, it is then that we understand the heart.

Danny Minton is a former Elder and minister at Southern Hills Church of Christ