While I haven’t really needed an interpreter much lately, I have been around quite a few already this year. Do you know what the job of most interpreters is? You are probably thinking “interpret?” Well yes…and maybe no. When I think of interpreting, my mind goes first to the word interpretation. With interpretation comes thoughts or ideas of what a word, dream, picture or something else means. I’ve been taught to look beyond the facade of a person or past the obvious of a picture. Interpretation is something that I think we as humans continually do whether we are aware of it or not.
Since I have been on this race there have been two people who have stood out to me as amazing interpreters. The first was a young woman at a church in Santo Domingo and the second was the pastor of New Life Church in Phnom Penh. Ironically, the pastor at New Life was a young American man who spoke what seemed to be flawless Khmer and had a Cambodian translate to us Americans in English. Regardless, the thing that stood out to me with both of these interepreters was CLARITY. Niether was reaching for words or trying to rephrase what was said. Both flowed in expression without hesitancy as they translated from one language to the other. They tried to not add or take away from the source. Hold that thought a minute please 🙂
A couple blogs ago I made a comment about prayer and how God was starting to shape the way I pray. I used the term ambassador and said that what I was learning was kind of a big deal. Well, I haven’t really had or taken the time to accurately depict to you what I mean…But, since I will be in the mountains for awhile, I figured I’d give it a quick shot:)
I have often found myself praying for health, truth, clarity, wisdom, discernment, understanding, gifts among an assortment of other things FOR friends, family and strangers. In many ways I have acted as an ambassador for them to God. Some of the prayers I have prayed have been answered….others have not. One night I was laying in bed with a number of people on my heart to pray for and no words to express it. I wanted to pray earnestly for those who wer on my heart and I just couldn’t find a place to start. It was then that He hit me with the revelation that I was acting more as an ambassador for the people in my life than I was as an ambassador for Him.
The prayers I had been praying had been a mix of my mind and His heart but were focused primarily on people or the things asked for. Grocery list prayers have never been my forte or desire and yet I still had some things backward in my head. God is the one who deserves the glory because He is the only one deserving of it. He is the one who needs to be the center…ALWAYS!
That night I resumed asking a question that I have asked so many times before but needs to become my question all of the time. God, who do you want me to pray for and what do you want me to pray about for them? In doing so, the focus is shifted back to Him where it belongs. My “job” is then to listen to what He has on His heart and then just verbally ask Him to do it. Honestly, this is no different than the job of most translators or interpreters. All I am doing is listening to what He has to say and then try to flow with His expression as I put English words to the desires of His heart….seems much more fruitful to me….
While I wouldn’t normally consider myself to be a control freak, I feel as though it is human to want control. Listening and being willing to pray His heart will generate some prayers that don’t make much sense. However, doesn’t it almost seem right that a God who seems to enjoy doing things that lack “common sense” would lead us into prayers that sound backward? All I know is that I can come up with some “pretty good” prayers from my head that sound good and even make sense with what seems to be going on. However, if they aren’t birthed from His heart for His glory then it’s just exhaled breath.
Random thought…The more obedient of an ambassador I am for Him, the more effective I will be as an ambassador for you
Random thought 2…Even Daniel replied that interpretation was His alone, but here is what it means…He didn’t try to figure it out, he just relayed the message
Please pray that God continues to draw me into His heart and that He would teach me how to pray…that He would reveal the word of the Lord to me and make His voice known to me. Also that I would have ears to hear, discernment to know what needs to be said of the things I hear, and the courage to be obedient to whatever He says.
