Foot Fingers
Dan Kunz
A few years ago, my friend described an encounter he had with his then daughter’s boyfriend (now husband). Lukas is from Brazil and although his English is now very good, at the time he sometimes struggled to find the correct word for something in English. Lukas was visiting Allison up in Wisconsin and it was winter. Scott asked Lukas to help him with some work outside. Of course, Lukas wasn’t used to the cold weather, and although he was bundled up pretty well, he appeared to be turning a little blue. When Scott asked if he was warm enough, Lukas replied, “My foot fingers are a little cold.” Foot fingers? It only took Scott a few seconds to finger out what Lukas was saying. He couldn’t remember the English word for “toes”, so he simply described them with the words he could remember – foot fingers! That’s not only funny and cute, but it’s also a perfect description of what our toes are. Even if he didn’t have all the right words, Lukas was able to convey his meaning. Scott was able to find him some warmer socks and the outdoors project continued.
If you dive below the surface just a little bit, there’s a lesson for all of us in that exchange. Even if we don’t always have the exact words for something, with some thought and persistence, we can usually convey the meaning we want. Moms and young children just learning to speak are a good example. If all else fails, just point and one can usually get the message across. This also works with adults who don’t speak the same language. On a recent fishing trip in Mexico, my friend and I had a guide who didn’t speak very much English. As a matter of fact, he spoke almost no English. Yet over four days of fishing he was usually able to make us “dumb Gringos” understand through pointing and hand gestures. We can do the same thing when conveying the Gospel!
Probably the number one “excuse” which people use for not sharing the Gospel with others, is that they don’t know what to say. They claim they are not “seminary-educated” and so, don’t have the proper terminology for all the wonderful information they have to share about Jesus and God’s plan of salvation for the world. You may get sanctification and justification turned around. You may not know what reconciliation and propitiation mean. The trinity and eternity are difficult for us to wrap our head around. You may not be able to speak “religion”.
You can, however, point to God. You can tell someone how the Heavenly Father directs your life. You can describe your relationship with Jesus. You can illustrate how the Holy Spirit comes to comfort you in times of trouble. “Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying” was written by Daniel March in 1868, and beautifully explains this concept with the words, “You can tell the love of Jesus, you can say he died for all”. Our lives preach a powerful sermon, as do our words. When a believer lives a life of love and service to the Lord and his fellow man, people see it. When a believer shares Jesus, people hear it. The great part is that the power of the message doesn’t come from us – it comes from God. You plant the seed; he makes it grow. Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Sharing the Gospel? Whatever it takes!