Language learning and living water

Learning a language is kind of like un-blocking a river. You remove bits of mud, take out stones, and pull away logs that would be obstructing (or diverting) the flow of the river.

Sometimes it’s a tough and tedious process, and sometimes it might feel like you’re not really getting anywhere.

But the pressure of the river is always ardently surging forward. At first it’s an ever increasing trickle. Then it turns into a firmer flow that tugs at your ankles, and then finally it lets loose into a constant rushing current that carries you away.

The pressure of the river makes the un-blocking easier.

For some, this river (this motivation) might be the desire to talk to some people or some special someone. For others it might be a desire to make money, or to get ahead in the world.

But for us, this current, this forward-propelling, obstacle-removing force, is the very living waters of life springing up from within us. We long to talk to people and pass on the good news. We bubble with excitement when we start to be able to have little conversations with these people that God loves. And we’re propelled forward by his desire to be able to speak and get the gospel in every last corner of the earth.

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’“(John 7:38)

If we can just take the time to remove the obstacles (the language we don’t know), then this living water can naturally flow forward and spill out onto very, very thirsty, dry ground.