Immigration reform is a hot topic of late. Both political parties are tempted to see it as a touchstone for garnering votes in the next election. One item is especially important to the English-speaking public: requiring that immigrants speak our language. Some view this as a hardship, some view it as “the price of citizenship,” others view it as being a fundamental requirement for joining any culture.
In an interview for NPR’s Morning Edition, Heide Wrigley, a senior researcher at Literacywork International, says immigrants’ ability to speak English is about more than just the language — it makes for a stronger, more integrated country. “It doesn’t just require that you learn the grammar and the pronunciation. You need thousands of words,” she says. “And you have to build what we call communicative competence that allows you to know not just what to say, but what to say to whom and when. And what not to say.”
It’s similar to the way in which we enter into communication with our Creator. We sometimes struggle with the right words, looking for the right terms, guarding our sincerity, checking our motives. We must remember that Peter, in his first letter, calls all of us sojourners, exiles, strangers in a strange land.
That is, until we were brought into the family of God. The communications barriers then fall down if we will only remember Romans 8:26 which tells us the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
There is no language barrier with God. Our true feelings, if not the proper semantics, syntax and grammar, fall on the Creator’s ears.
So pray without ceasing.
For a great little book on praying the Lord’s Prayer, go see: www.therealprayer.com
The Real Prayer 