September 25, 2010

Semantics

By fagankela in community, rants 2 Comments Tags: adam fagan-kela, communication, Leadership, team, tower of babel, Unity, unstoppable

The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 confuses me. After the flood God commanded the people of the earth to “be fruitful and multiply.” And in line with our human nature, they did the opposite. They decided to build a great tower that would make Babel famous, and hunker down in one spot. Their disobedience was flagrant at best, God said “GO” and the people replied “NO”. The part that of the story I’ve wrestled with is found in verse six.

Genesis 11:6 “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!

God saw that the people were united and unstoppable, so he made everyone speak a different language. Once the people weren’t able to communicate, they spread out on their own populating different parts of the earth. Which is what God told them to do in the first place. It’s numbing for me to think of how quickly the people went from being united and unstoppable, to disjointed and unable to move. Had there ambitions changed? Or was it simply there ability to communicate?

I am inspired by this verse and it’s implications. The power of people united in ambition and able to communicate it’s objectives creates an impeccable force. Even God acknowledged the damage that could be done… but is it still possible?

I can’t even begin to count the amount of arguments I have had, only to conclude that the points being argued were actually the same, just framed differently. In churches today, we are filled with Christian Jargon, that offer so many different connotations based on their audience. But how many of us are saying the same thing in different ways?