ventriloquismDid you ever catch yourself presumptuously speaking for someone else? I am prone to this especially when introducing one friend to another.

I caught myself in mid-sentence the other night, answering questions for someone well able to speak for himself. It is preposterous no matter how well I know the person because I really don’t know “everything” about anyone.

I don’t know how my kids think as much as I act as though I do.

I don’t know what my wife is thinking or what message she has received from my words.

More than that, I have no idea of the message that is being non-verbally communicated in my interactions.

I have no idea of the deeply rooted values that people are hardly able to articulate by times. I misinterpret negative reactions that I receive when I inadvertently trample on these sacred grounds. By times, I am so self-absorbed that I don’t take time to read the boundary markers and respect them.

So there I was prattling along, responding to a question addressed to someone else.

How stupid can a person be?

I have done the same with Jesus. At times I have behaved as though He is not able to speak for Himself. My intentions have been good. I want people to like Jesus and I am convinced that I can increase the odds of His “likability” if I can put my words in his mouth.

Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t I be able to trust Him by shutting up?

He spoke for Himself when we were getting acquainted and we have done just fine. He still speaks directly to the deepest recesses of my soul and I hear him loud and clear. Sometimes I try to drown out His deafening whispers. But His Words lovingly slice me to the bone. They only hurt because they expose the truth that I have gone to elaborate lengths to mask or hide. And when He speaks so clearly to my duplicitous heart I am both hurt and healed at once.

I cannot pretend when we talk.

I’d love your prayers that I could be quiet so that He could be heard in all of my relationships … first of all in our own.

– KI