cabeza hombros rodillas y dedos de pie
introductions in chile go a little like this. a kiss on the right cheek, accompanied by an hola, buenos días, or something of the sort, and then as you draw back, a mucho gusto (nice to meet you). however, no one has yet to meet anyone, because NO names were exchanged. i still don’t actually know the names of half the people i’ve met. at this point i’ve dug myself into a rather deep hole, because after you’ve been “friends” with someone for several weeks, it’s a little too late to ask for a name.
after the introduction where no one is introduced, i’m usually asked why i chose to come to chile, how i like valparaíso so far, and how long i’ve been studying spanish. then they lie through their teeth about how great my spanish is and start blabbering away at a record speed as i nod and smile.
six years. i’ve been studying spanish for six years. and right about now, i’m wondering what the heck i was doing in class all that time. how am i possibly struggling so much with this language? the other day mi mamá asked me what kinds of cars my family has. and i only knew one word for car. coche. that’s it. that was the extent of my motorized vehicle vocabulary. it took a fair amount of charades on my part, and her impressive imagination, to communicate that at home, i drive a camión. i KNOW for a fact that i was taught more than that in high school. and i am equally confident that at the time, i figured i’d never actually need to know more than the word coche. so i studied up the night before the test and let it all slip away once i turned in the exam. i’d love to say this is an isolated event. it is not. adverbs of location? i know three. remember the head shoulders knees and toes song? that’s the extent of my knowledge of the parts of the body.
every time i come upon a situation like this, i mentally kick myself. why didn’t i take advantage of the hours i was required to be in class and actually learn the dang words? because i thought there more important things to deal with. like my physics homework, or the doodle on the left hand margin of my notebook, or the vibrating phone in my backpack signaling a new text. certainly not the proper way to from verbs in the past perfect subjunctive.
and this got me wondering as to how often this happens outside of spanish class. are there times when God is trying to teach me something significant and i prefer to give my concentration and energy to trivial things? absolutely. do i ever work halfheartedly at the work He’s set before me? without a doubt.
reading through colossians, i was convicted by this verse. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:24. well shoot. you can’t really get around that one.
right now, my work is learning spanish. even when it takes a full minute to stumble through a question at the electronics store, only to have the clerk respond in perfect english. even when i’ve asked qué? five times and still don’t understand what mi mamá is trying to tell me. my work is loving my chilean family and the people i’ve met. my work is making ample time for jesus when life gets busy and the world tries to pull me in different directions. my work is being a city on a hill and a fisher of men. and not simply going through the motions, but doing each of these wholeheartedly.
