The Issue Is… Transliteration

Watch it here!

Transliteration is the process of transferring a word from the alphabet of one language to another. Transliteration helps people pronounce words and names in foreign languages.

It’s the most frustrating feeling in the world to feel misunderstood. You feel like you’re speaking English. You even arrange and rearrange your words just to feel understood and heard. However, even with the best intentions, there’s still a breakdown in communication and inevitably a misunderstanding occurs.

I am someone who chooses their words VERY carefully. I’ve always felt it’s one of the most effective devices we have to convey a thought, emotion, or feeling. However, that’s not really true now is it? I remember when I was in college I took a public speaking and communications course. One thing our professor taught us is more than 80% of communication is nonverbal. The rest is left up to tone and word choice. As someone who had always chosen their words very carefully, this was surprising to me. I prided myself on excellent communication and yet it was very possible I had been communicating the wrong way all along… How much did I say without REALLY saying it? And when communicating, were they listening to my verbal thoughts or non-verbal intentions?

I am definitely the type to look up the definition of a word mid-argument, debate, or conversation. I don’t do it to be annoying (at least not always lol), it’s really just something I do to better understand. If after looking at the definition it doesn’t align with what either of us are trying to say, we find a different more accurate word to use instead. After all, I can only go by what you say right? If I can’t take your words at face value then where does that leave us? That was my thinking at least…

Sticking to this logic would prove increasingly difficult, as I found myself consistently in situations where words were conflicting with perceived intentions and actions conflicting with my discernment. Everything was telling me something different, nothing in agreement with the other, and it got to the point where I wondered if maybe it was me. Did everyone have this secret language that I wasn’t in on? Somewhere hidden, was there a teeny tiny, imperceptible to ME answer key to the spoken word? It was like words didn’t reflect their given definitions anymore and you were expected to guess what they were trying to say, word choice be damned. Then a memory popped up and revelation came…

Growing up, I was a highly sensitive child. I’ve been able to see into the spirit realm since I was three years old. Things most people couldn’t or wouldn’t see were as clear as day to me and if were being honest, most times terrified me. I walked around in a constant state of fear, forced to experience this unseen realm I had absolutely no control over. That was my perception at the time. As I got older, not only did I begin to recognize these entities as a spirit outside of people, but it began to translate into the spirit(s) and intentions a person carried. Imagine being in grade school and having a deep aversion to certain people, but you can’t quite explain why. You’re called mean and stuck up or told you think you’re better, when in reality it’s the state of their spirit you can’t bear. Some people carry scars SO deep, too deep for you to withstand while others carry a darkness your soul has yet to comprehend. You struggle because you want to tell the truth… But you don’t quite have the words to explain the understanding you have. You see, we live in a world where people lie to you because they are lying to themselves. It’s not that they do it on purpose. They just don’t know what they’re feeling yet. So imagine the gall of me, to tell you you’re feeling and experiencing something you have yet to admit to yourself?

I wanted friends. I really did. I didn’t want to constantly feel like an outsider. The weird girl who sees and knows too much. The girl who had knowledge of things she couldn’t explain, much less the origins from which it came. The “know it all”. Nobody likes a know it all. So I learned to ignore juuuuuust enough of the truth to not be alone; Juuuuust enough of the darkness to see their light; And juuuuust enough of the truth to appear teachable in their eyes. The eyes of my peers. Your likable when you’re teachable. So I became the perpetual student. I dimmed my light and I ignored my discernment, just enough to get by. It didn’t matter that I already knew what they were trying to teach me or that I had insight into the unknown. I could see the joy teaching me brought them and truly at times they were. It was nice to hear how others would solve my problems and quite enlightening as well. Especially during my vengeful phase when I didn’t always use my best judgment. In high school I would turn my discernment on and off like a light switch running to the dark when thing got too scary but God is always in control. No matter how many times I try to control things his will is always done. I remember one time in high school when he turned it back on FOR me just long enough to see and give grace to a girl who really needed it. That’s an interesting story for a different day but just know it doesn’t matter how gifted you are. You still need help. The ear and companionship we’re fulfilling for me. The problem is when you ignore your discernment for too long, you forget to turn the light back on and you fall asleep. In the darkness you begin to think and believe you can behave like everyone else even though YOU know better. You expect your consequences to be the same as the next person, calculating exactly how much consequence you’re willing to endure to prove a point. You lie to yourself without any concern for looking deeper until the consequences start hitting like someone who’s done more and you realize you’ve been sorely mistaken. It doesn't work like that and it’s dangerous. The more gifted the more responsibility. Remember this next time you wonder why everyone else get’s away with the things you don’t.

I did this for YEARS until one day I woke up. It wasn’t gentle either. I was shaken awake like a bucket of ice water thrown over my head in the deepest of sleeps and I came back to myself. The light turned on and in the light and my vision cleared. I looked at the fallen state of everything around me and felt like my world came crashing down. Everything I’d missed in the dark was abundantly clear by the light. This gift that use to feel like a curse brought MUCH to my attention and I sobered up instantly. I had years of ideas built up in my mind of the people and environment around me, their words matching my ideas of them only to find nothing was as it seemed. My discernment was screaming at me. I was thrown back to my grade school self feeling something I had no words to explain and left to question what I should do about it. I’ll question myself before I question you so… I said nothing and instead watched to see if their actions lined up with my discernment… and it did. In some cases it was a great thing but in others it was devastating. Reality is a cold reminder when you’ve been egregiously distracted and you have your work cut out for you.

So with clean eyes and a renewed spirit, how do you explain the unexplainable? Transliteration. I had this “ah ha!” moment during a conversation with my husband when I realized our lapse in communication was happening because I was using a spiritual language to explain something he already didn’t understand. While a translation will tell you the meaning of a word, a transliteration will create a word for a language that has a different alphabet. You translate the understanding of your spirit into an audible language that can be understood with words. The moment I had that realization I was “double” checked.

I had been consistently having 5 to 8 dreams a night, and when I would wake in the morning, I would be so frustrated trying to translate what God was telling me. I remember an angry prayer one night where I said or more accurately begged, “God just speak simply! Just tell me what you want me to know and use simple words!” The nerve of me… But like a father with his child, he sees the heart… the intention… and he answers. That night I had a dream and in that dream I saw someone doing something. Without going into too much detail of the dream, basically it was a reenactment of something I wanted to do. At the end of the reenactment someone literally held up a poster board that said the word “MIMIC”. He was literally telling me to mimic what I saw. I woke up the next morning in laughter. Our father has an interesting sense of humor and truly the Lord could not speak any more plainly than that!

It was moment of profound and instant understanding; like explaining a simple concept to a child. Our God, our Creator, so profound in wisdom and understanding has to translate a spiritual understanding into a spoken language that we can understand. He literally communicates in experiences, videos, pictures and stories because it’s the most remedial way to get a point across. God’s parables are like bedtime stories to us and we see them our dreams. He uses OUR language to speak to us but he has to transliterate first. After this revelation, I thought back on all of the times I’d felt misunderstood. I had been using a spiritual language and understanding to convey a point to someone who hadn’t been taught yet. It didn’t make them any less intelligent. It simply meant I needed to use a language they understood.

Would you get mad if someone who only spoke Spanish couldn’t understand your English when you had the knowledge to speak both? Only someone lacking in grace would and well, you know what they say about grace… Be careful of the measure you use, for it will be measured back to you.

This is what God does for us. God is a spiritual being. There is a spiritual language and because we have not come into the full understanding of it yet, God uses our language to speak. Just imagine how limiting our language is to him? Add to that the fact that we all understand in different ways because of each gift he’s placed inside of us. Our gift is a part of that spiritual language and not everybody has the same gift. I say all that say, be patient. If you find yourself having a lapse in communication with someone, give others the grace you’d want. Not being understood can be difficult at times but we’ve all been there. We’ve all been on the giving and receiving end of it. Take it as an opportunity to broaden your horizons and either learn a new language or teach someone yours.