Did you know that those who are deaf cannot understand ‘gray’ words?

Sign language only knows how to say something in black and white. It cannot reproduce vague, cluttered, flumbling sentences. If you are someone who tends to speak with rabbit trails down a muddy path, you’ll find a confused deaf person point up with one hand and form a “T” over the top with another, which translates as “get to the point”.

Wish washy words can be used as a crutch to blur lines we’re hesitant to stand on. Afterall, isn’t that why we alter the crisply finished Word of God with a modern day, watered down version of stories? We gray the lines that were once black and white to soften the blow of a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’.

This pre-washed approach used to temper and tone down God’s message creates an average quality of Truth that can be found in books bound with a self help sticker.

The tightly woven words of God, like a great pair of jeans, are finished in such a way that prevent fraying, fading or raveling and don’t require altering.

Another thought. I wonder if sometimes we’re so deaf to God’s words and are secretly signing back to Him with our frustration and stress, “get to the point, get to the point”.

Kristin Neff, author of the book “Self Compassion”, used the terms “coffin of conventionality” as she referred to a complacent lifestyle.

When I tune into the changes happening around me, I wonder, have I fallen into this grave too? Or do I rush these sweet moments of singleness with my stripped down, snappy prayers that sound more like, get-to-the-point, God? Oh, forgive me Father, for my fleeting feelings that leave me content one moment and headlong hurried in another.

In all honesty, there’s a laundry list of areas where I am tempted to gray the lines from the black and white boundaries painted on the canvas of my heart, just to loosen up the spectrum a bit.

Where are those places you blur the black and white of what you know you should do? Are you slightly sighing in your setbacks, pointing up to the sky with a striking crossbar temper that says, “get to the point, God”?

We have such a merciful God. He is meeting us here, on this platform of questions and I pray He nudges you in those places that need some ironing out.