Language Learning is Increasing Comfort in My Daily Life

Daily writing promptWhat strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?View all responses

I felt prompted to get serious about learning Spanish at age 71 and began to watch YouTube videos in Spanish for an hour or more almost every day and to read at least one chapter in my Spanish New Testament every day. I eventually discovered Duo Lingo and began using it for a half hour or more each day.

After 9 months two families from southern Mexico moved in next door to me (not a coincidence). My wife and I got to know and love them, and I get to use my Spanish with them a lot. After 10 months I attended a Spanish immersion school in Costa Rico for two weeks and stayed in the home of a local family. It was an amazing way to share the Gospel with the family, with my teachers, and with my fellow students who were from the USA, Canada, and Germany. (When they asked me how I was learning Spanish I told them that I was reading the Bible in Spanish every day. That opened the door for me to share my faith with them.)

It has now been a year and a half since I started and I’m continuing with my daily activities in Spanish and really enjoying them. Experiencing Spanish, using it, and understanding it is much different than hearing a talk about it. The same with the risen Jesus.

I woke up this morning with this poem and the following paragraph forming in my heart and mind before I got out of bed:

Jesus calls
Like Niagara Falls.
Come close to Me
So you can see
And experience
My reality.
Let me surround you
With My living water
So that you stay soaked
And spiritually stoked
With the mist
Of My presence.
Let me rock your boat
And train you to trust Me
To keep you afloat.
Keep coming near
And you will hear
My holy roar
Drowning out
All your fear and doubt.
Don’t just visit once
And think you’re done.
Live every moment
Vividly
Aware of Me,
Christ, the Son
Of the living God.

I heard about Niagra Falls all my life, but it was just words in my mind until I rode a boat into its horseshoe shape and was surrounded and shaken by its majestic reality. Words about Jesus are nothing like His literal presence. Do whatever it takes to experience His glorious, life-transforming reality, not just once, but continually live your life in intense awareness of His presence throughout each day.