Mark 8:16
Have
you ever noticed that sometimes our conversations are about something that has
absolutely no real importance? The Web is filled with relatively meaningless
junk. Think about the funny videos you have watched. What was the eternal value
connected to the moments you spent watching them? Or endless ‘conversations’ on
FaceBook, or any other social media?
But
before you hang up the phone, most sports conversations don’t really matter
either. In fact, I contend that so many of our conversations don’t have much
content even when we are discussing the most important things. I think we have
lost the ability to communicate at any level other than a surface level. We
lack the vocabulary and the grammar to speak in sentences that flow from one to
the other and carry on a logical argument. We have mastered the glib, sound bites,
but beyond that most of us have difficulty.
It
sounds as though the disciples had no discussion beyond the bread. Jesus
introduces them to a word picture about yeast and the content of religious and
political speech. They seem to have never moved beyond the yeast and into a
discussion about the Pharisees and Herod, the King. As I said yesterday, their
stomachs ruled their minds.
Part
of what great communicators do is turn conversations. They start the
conversation with a topic that connects with people. Then, slowly at first,
they turn the conversation to something that matters, about which they have a
passion. If they just jumped into their chosen topic, most people would turn
them out. But, because they have captured their imaginations, their hearts and
their emotions are now engaged. This brings them deeper into the conversations
that follow. They are hooked.
This
skill can be used for redemptive and sinful purposes. Advertising specialists
do this to raise their bottom line. Politicians do it to shape the conversation
so that they gain power or preserve the power they have already, while
carefully selecting the facts that make their position and them personally
smell like roses, or at least not as bad as their opponent.
We
need to learn this skill in our personal lives, so that we can turn
conversations from the meaningless and mundane to the eternal. Not very
conversation needs to be about heaven and hell, but many more need to be about
values and choices, observations and interactions with the culture. We need to
sharpen our conversation and argument making skills, so that when the
opportunity arises we are able to articulate the Gospel to a world that has
questions and needs concrete answers. We call this field of conversation
apologetics.