Our culture is inundated by communication. We are, it has been said, in the communication age. There are billions of words simultaneously flying through the air every second; over cell-phones and the internet. Everyone wants to be heard. The modern American dream is to achieve global fame. We all want our fifteen minutes. With our cellular phones we can force ourselves on any unsuspecting member of our social cliché, or anyone else for that matter. And not, with our recent discover of the wonderful world of blogging, we can present our undiscovered wisdom to the wide world. No, these things are not evil in themselves, but discretion must be used, and by and large, it is not. The whole world screams into the vacuum to be heard.
For our silly efforts to be known and heard by the world, our culture has blindly sacrificed many good things. Blessings have been abandoned for selfish desires. Those who seek fame are adored by the masses. But for adoration they often give up the love of a few close friends. Over the internet, points can be made, but seldom are we truly understood. In our efforts to be acknowledged we give up the opportunities we have to be known. We rave at the world, rebuking, scorning, and criticizing, but we are unable to achieve the proper end of those exercises: uplifting and encouraging one another. In broadcasting to everyone, we speak to no one. We communicate, but rarely do we converse. We, as a people, as the Church, have lost the gift of conversation.
The Church of Christ is a living organ, one body made of many member. How can that body function and live if there is no blood flowing through her? That blood is love, and it pumps, moves from cell to cell, person to person, largely by conversation.
Conversation is so much more than talking. It entails it, yes, as well as time, sacrifice, unselfishness, maturity, understanding, discernment, care, wisdom, and love. It is a weapon of war to further the Kingdom. It can help unify the Church.
We are to be know by our love for our brethren. How can we love them if we do not know them? How can we now them if we do not converse with them? He can we converse with the masses? Conversation is personal. It is a tool that we have been given to commune with one another, something we should greatly desire. Communion with the saints is a blessing. Communion is multi-sensual. We see on another, smell and taste (especially through the bread and wine of Christ), and we hear each other through conversation. All that we might know and love one another to the end of lifting up and encouraging, so that by grace we might imitate Christ’s love for, and communion with us, His bride.
