Separation

Spanish is my second language. I'm in Spanish IV in school, and I'm semi-fluent. There's a curse that comes with being fluent. I quite often find myself translating english to spanish in my mind during everyday conversation. I was doing just that the other day while talking to Alyssa on facebook. I mentioned it to her, and she offered to help. She said she would pull up a translator and I would talk in spanish, and she would turn that into english. I happily accepted her offer, so we talked like that for just over half an hour.

Once I spoke all the spanish I could take, we switched back to english. My mind, however, was still in what i called "spanish mode". It was, believe it or not, a tad bit difficult to think and type in english. I began to wonder if that must be the curse that comes with fluency, or if, once one is more fluent than I, they can "turn off" whichever "mode" they're on, kind of like what some artists do. They sometimes have to turn off their "artist's eye", otherwise they will see even the smallest things as beautiful, and marvel at the simplest of objects.

That brought my mind to religion, and I realized I, and many more Christians, have separate "modes" in our lives. We go to church and enter "God mode". For that hour we are true Christians. We focus on God; give him all of our attention. Once we leave that church, though, like an artist leaving her painting, or a linguist changing languages, we go into what one may call "life mode". We all too often separate God from out everyday lives. I e-mailed my Pastor a few weeks ago. I was having trouble with the fact that my relationship with the LORD was melting away. Between work, school, and other obligations, I didn't have time to read my Bible or write a new article (as I'm sure you know). I asked him how I'm really expected to juggle all of that, and add God on top of everything else. His reply was this:

it can be helpful to see and live in a way that school, work, and musical are your witness and your service to God. Not to separate our God life from our everyday life.

Truer words have never been spoken. Amen.

In Christ,
Kyle