John Donne wrote that: All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated ... As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness ... No man is an island, entire of itself ... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne recognised the need for good communication between human beings if they were to function as they were intended.
The Bible teaches us that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. In order to live our lives in a manner that is pleasing to God we need to communicate with Him often through the medium of prayer. Like all communication, prayer is a two-way happening. To pray without believing that God is listening to you becomes little more than a meaningless babble that will have little more than a placebo effect. For prayer to become meaningful you need to pray believing that God hears you, that He will answer you, and you must also listen to what He says to you, remembering that communication is about much more than simply words alone.
For the greater part of my life I've been involved in communicating with people through the gift of writing, whether it be prose, verse or song. Many of the people who will read my work will never meet up with me, yet the communication is still there, just as positively as if we were meeting face to face. Through the words that I write, they will find a way to communicate with others and, more importantly, they can find a medium through which God can speak to them.
Greg Scheer --- the composer with whom I write most of my songs --- and I, have never met, yet we meet up in a sense through the words themselves. We are on a similar wave-length, and that's because the words and the music of the songs communicate, linking us together.
Communication. The tool that enables us to live side by side, cheek by jowl, comfortably. Without it we are empty, devoid of feelings and without companionship. Without it we would be lost, for without communication we would be out of touch with God. And life without God would be meaningless and empty.
Let's think about the way that we interact and communicate with others, for when we do then not only their lives are changed, but our lives also.
A kind word, a smile, a look, a touch. These are all ways to reach out and touch people's lives. In our hands we have a powerful tool that can bring about change through all these ways.
One of the great problems of this Age is communication, or at least, the lack of it. It’s a strange anomaly that we live in an Age where the means of communication have never been more accessible on the one hand, yet where the communication gap has widened considerably, on the other. Years ago the only means of communication was word of mouth. If you needed to send a message a great distance then it was necessary for you to use a messenger or messengers. Eventually, as mankind progressed, so did his powers of communication, and letters could be sent by messenger, ensuring that what was delivered was what you wanted to say without embellishment. As the years progressed we entered the era of the telegraph and telephone systems, and communication became far easier. People also used the mail to maintain relationships, and even as a hobby in the case of pen-friends. The latest news could be relayed to us in an instant via the radio and, ultimately, the television. We had arrived in the ‘Golden Age’ as far as communication was concerned.
