The Heart of the Matter

One of my favourite people a thousand years ago was a guy from Poland who I met in England. In general, his English was good, but every once in a while, he would say something wrong. My favourite thing he said wrong was 'Neither I' instead of 'Me neither,' and I never corrected him because, even though it was wrong, it was so endearing that I didn't want him to stop saying it.

To be honest, I'm really bad about correcting people who speak English as a second language, and I try to tell them this upfront if they ask me to help them. The thing is, although of course I notice when they say things wrong (and something within me slightly cringes when they do), I'm more concerned with the content of what they're saying than how they're actually saying it. The specific words they're using are a tool to communicate to me what they're thinking and feeling. What I'm primarily concerned with is the truth of what they're experiencing and what they're trying to communicate, not the way they communicate it.

As I was brushing my teeth tonight, I was thinking about this, about all the times my friends who speak English as a second language get things wrong but I don't mind so much because I'm more concerned with what's behind that, and, perhaps strangely, it made me think about God's heart for us. Yeah, we do things wrong. We fall short. We mess up. Every single one of us. And usually, we feel some measure of embarrassment, guilt, conviction or condemnation when we do. But what if God is looking at us the same way I'm listening to my friends--not super concerned with the little blips and bumps when we get it wrong, but really wanting to get to what's behind all that? What if our little messes (that may be piling up into bigger messes at times) aren't so important to Him and what He really cares about is what's underneath them, and what they're communicating to Him about the heart of the matter? And the heart of the matter that He really wants to get to, the thing He is primarily concerned about, the most important thing to Him really, is actually the state of our hearts.

Well, there's an interesting thought for tonight. I'm gonna go ponder that a little bit more.