Musing – What Keeps People from Talking Openly to Each Other?

Hebraic Musing – What Keeps People from Talking Openly to Each Other?

While we often say “Silence is golden” there is also a dark side to silence.  Silence is a good time for meditation, but do we really want to meditate on who we are?  Better to turn on the radio, headphones, music, TV, MP3, etc., anything to distract from listening to ourselves.  Social Media has a way of “chat”ting with others while not saying too much.  When did people stop talking openly?  The answer is in the Bible!

Adam and Eve had an ideal relationship with each other AND with Almighty God with whom they walked and talked in the Garden, conversing freely.  There was nothing between them and their nakedness was comfortable!  There was an ideal continual relationship between God and man!

We know the events leading up to Adam and Eve’s disobedience and how they tried to hide from God.  One cannot play “Hide and Seek” with an omniscient God!  But they tried!  Then came the famous line from God calling out "Where are you?" in Gen 3:9.  What was God’s tone of voice?   Was it…
 - Quizzical?    Like He did not know.                          
 - Angry?         Like they were hiding from Him.
 - Indifferent? Like God did not care that He didn’t find them. 
 - Idle curiosity?   No way!   I think God spoke “sobbingly”, crying because open conversational communication ceased with His creation.  God was heartbroken when asking Adam where he was and what he had done.  Man could no longer talk openly to God!  Brandon Cox* pointed out “But we were made by our Creator to connect with others, and intimacy is a deep and abiding need of every human heart.  We need to know and be known.”

How does sin keep us from talking openly to God and to others?  Why do we wear masks to church?  Where else do we wear masks?  Facebook and other social media!  Is it really “Social” if we only talk of things mentionable.  Are we hiding our true selves?  Why is it difficult to get accountability amongst our peers, even in small groups designed for fellowship?

What keeps us from getting close enough and honest enough with others to fully know them or to be fully known by them?  Answer – SIN.  When sin is present, communication is closed which leads to hatred, racism, prejudice and inequality in the world.  Sin is the obstacle preventing open communication with God as-well-as with fellow man.  Even among the “Saved” sin becomes an obstacle to openness. 

I wonder if Adam and Eve continued to have open communication with each other?  Husbands and wives struggle with silence resulting from sin and this leads to dissolution of over half the marriages and damaged relationships.  We were warned against silence - “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry” Eph. 4:26   Sin and the resulting silence leads to all kinds of relationship breakdowns, including wars.  How do you feel as a parent when your child gets caught misbehaving and avoids talking to you about it?  And we carry the sins committed against us; they result in shame which seals our lips, causing us to go silent, further limiting our openness.

Do our sins and awareness of our sinful nature hamper us from the sharing of the Gospel as we know we ought?  In the olden days (from 6,000 years ago until my childhood) we only had face-to-face conversation as our Social Media.  But now we have powerful tools available – Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc. all vying for our thumbs.  What an opportunity to share the Gospel!

Points to ponder

Why are we afraid to “get real”?    RSVP
What happens to a relationship when you share the real you – the good, bad & ugly?

What are the advantages of face-to-face conversations?
Would there be so much “Hate Speech” online if people had to talk face-to-face?

How effectively do we use the available Social Media options to openly share the Gospel?
Would we be obeying Jesus if we “Go into all the world” with Social Media?

♫ Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere.  Our Jesus Christ is born. ♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                          July 23, 2019

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

* Inspired and excerpted from “Rewired” by Brandon Cox, Chapter 2 “The Day the Conversation Died”