Two Things that Are Not Instant

As I’m writing this, my wife Annette and I are flying back from Madrid after two great weeks in eastern and southern Spain, our sixth or seventh trip to this wonderful country. Before each visit, I break out my high school Spanish textbook to reactivate the foreign language brain cells.

In college, I studied in Madrid for four months during which time I would occasionally dream in Spanish – a sign of true fluency. I also became certified to teach high school Spanish, and at one time I would have rated myself a 7 or 8 on a 10-point fluency scale. Today. I’m a 5 or 6 at best.

Unfortunately, once Spanish-speakers discover I’m pretty fluent, they often assume I can understand everything they say and start speaking as if they were a finalist is the “See How Many Words You Can Get Out in a Minute” contest. Not helpful.

During this trip I referred to my digital Spanish-English dictionary several times a day to look up technical words we encountered, and I learned the Spanish words for “drought,” “sickle,” “shortbread,” and (believe it or not) “Smurf.”

Somehow, a few months ago Face Book figured out we were going to Spain, so I have been flooded with offers to “learn Spanish in just 30 days” or “become conversational in just 10 minutes a day.” I doubt that any of these courses teach you the word for “Smurf.”

Residents of other countries love it when you at least try to speak a few words, but really feeling “at home” with a new language takes much more than casual study.

I learned this the hard way on my first trip to Europe while in college. Since I had a postcard to mail from Ulm, Germany, I decided to apply my one semester of college German to find a mailbox. After consulting my German-English dictionary, I patched together the German for, “Where is the postbox?” which I confidently asked the hotel desk clerk. He proceeded to deluge me with four rapid-fire German sentences, none of which I understood. It hadn’t occurred to me that if you ask a question in German, you will get an answer in German.

So, implying any truly conversational fluency in 30 days is optimistic at best. The fact that I’m only 5 or 6 in my Spanish fluency with my extensive background illustrates that language acquisition isn’t instantaneous.

I know this is disappointing in a day where “instant” is almost a given. I can “instantly” message anyone across the globe or “instantly” create an object using 3-D printing. So why not “instantly” learn a new language?

But it doesn’t work that way.

Nor does it when it comes to growing in your faith. Of course, anyone can start a relationship with Jesus the moment they recognize that their sin has separated them from God and that trusting in Jesus’ death and Resurrection is the only remedy. It’s free, and it’s available to everyone.

But some people who have been Christians for years lament the fact that they don’t know more about understanding the Bible, growing in their faith, grasping theology, or knowing church history. Well, how do you excel in anything: a new language, tennis, piano? By study, diligent work and persistence. Why should it be any different with your walk with Jesus and knowledge of the faith?

You master Spanish by devoting yourself to memorizing vocabulary words, studying grammar rules, working on your pronunciation, and practicing your conversational skills. Historically, things that have helped Christians grow are reading the Bible, memorizing important verses, spending time in prayer, attending worship services, meeting with other Christians, sharing their faith, investigating church history, and studying theology.

Disclaimer! I am not listing these activities as yet another set of burdens or requirements. Anyone who knows me knows I hate anything that smacks of legalism: doing good things so God will think more highly of you. What I’m pointing out is that people find the time to pursue the things they really care about. You don’t accidentally become fluent in Spanish. Nor do you accidentally become fluent in all things Christian. The latter takes motivation and determination empowered by the Holy Spirit. Rather than guilting you, I’m trying to challenge you to consider if you need to step up your game when it comes to deepening your understanding of the faith and your walk with Jesus.

And beyond this encouragement, let me recommend that if you ever have the chance to visit Spain, do it!