The Vision of Conversation

     Christians should be the best conversationalists on the planet—conversing well with God and man. After all, it was the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us according to John. Vincent’s word study on the word logos in John 1:1 here says, “The word here points directly to Genesis 1, where the act of creation is effected by God speaking (compare Psalm 33:6). The idea of God, who is in his own nature hidden, revealing himself in creation, is the root of the Logos-idea, in contrast with all materialistic or pantheistic conceptions of creation.”

     Habakkuk hears this from God as he questions God and listens to him:

I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.” (Hab 2:1-4)

     So this is what I see changing as we become good conversationalists. Here’s the vision.

1) Unity in the Church. We will learn to love and listen to others unlike us from other Christian traditions, which will foster unity in the Church between denominations. And we will learn to value that unity as Christ does in his prayer in John’s gospel—“that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21). But this isn’t some Unitarian’s idea of unity; inclusive love does not define right and wrong. Instead Jesus’ unity is where the Trinity is worshiped and our lives are lived together in his Body as conforming to Christ and his word to us. (Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to [the disciples on the Road to Emmaus] in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.)

2) Evangelism becoming more effective. We will also learn to talk to non-Christians and show them Christ’s other-centered love by listening to them. “Good evangelists…are people who engage others in good conversation about important and profound topics such as faith, values, hope, meaning, purpose, goodness, beauty, truth, life after death, life before death, and God,” says Brian McLaren author of More Ready Than You Realize: The Power of Everyday Conversations (p.16).

3) Christians walking with God. Most importantly, we will hear what the God of the universe has to say to us today and learn to walk in relationship with him, our souls becoming aligned with God’s love. As Dante’s Paradiso ends (the picture above),

"But already my desire and my will

were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed,

by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars."