man·i·fest

adjective
1 : readily perceived by the senses and especially by the sight
2 : easily understood or recognized by the mind

transitive verb
: to make evident or certain by showing or displaying

Circumstance after circumstance has led me to an absolute frustration with the misuse and misunderstanding of language that has resulted so often in needless pain and turmoil. How can someone truly make their feelings, ideas or convictions manifest with a language that will fail, giving the audience, whoever that might be, the wrong impression?

A good friend put the problem into excellent clarity for me: that language, as with anything else in this world, is fallen.

I don't know about you, but this makes me really angry. To think about how often, in relationships in which both people care deeply for each other and want to avoid hurting each other, they end up hurting each other anyway just because of the language they use and how they each understand it differently. Now, obviously there are times when people, even in relationships in which they care about each other deeply, hurt one another purposefully. We are messed up. It is an inevitability. But when relationships become broken and come to the point where they seem unfixable as a result of miscommunication after miscommunication, this is obviously Satan's work, and I hate him for it.

It might seem like the easiest way to avoid miscommunication would be to not say anything at all, but I think in doing so, you miss an incredible opportunity for grace and redemption. I am determined to not only make work of a restoration of language and its place in my relationships, but in doing so, to also not fall into the trap of avoiding saying what I think or feel in fear of being misunderstood.

"And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times." Psalm 12:6