If Christ is in Me, Does He have a Southern Accent?

There's an old joke about a boy who was killing rats in the barn.  When he killed a big one, he took it to show his mother. 

"Lookee here!" He shouted.  "Beat it and whomped it and then!--"

He looked over and saw the preacher, who was visiting with his mother on a pastoral visit. 

"And then it went to be with the Lord." 

 We always assume that being holy sounds a particular way--that it is a lilting, comforting sound,  filled with comforting, God sounding sounds.  Preaching at funerals,  comforting the sick, and officiating at wedding has a righteous tone that seems to suggest holiness.  But those of us who  engage in God-speech are often oblivious to the fact that it actually makes some people nauseous.

Like the little kid in the above story, we speak God language because we think it's how we are supposed to speak, not the way we're born to speak. We speak in imagined accents of heaven, not the native accents of earth, because to us it sounds more righteous. But God is everywhere, on earth as He is in heaven. He listens to us constantly, not just when we are dressed up in our Sunday best.  He prefers us just as we are,  in all our earthiness an profanity.

The great reformer Martin Luther sometimes used language that would make a sailor blush.  Elijah mocked the priest of Baal with profanity.  Jesus and His disciples were mocked because of their Galilean accents. The idea that there is one way to speak to God an another to speak on earth cannot be supported in the Bible. 

But what about the majesty of God?  What about preserving in feeling of holiness and reverence?  Go ahead, if you wish. There is certainly nothing wrong with honoring God in every way, and if using "Thee" and "Thou" while praying helps you do that,  then do it.  We need to remember that God isn't like us. 

But the notion that God should only be addressed in some kind of holy language and not in others,  just doesn't hold water.  It denies the Biblical truth that God is everywhere and with us in every moment in life.  He is with us when we sleep, when we wake, in our bedrooms and our bathrooms.  He is with us always.   He speaks our language,  we do not speak His.  He adjusts His ears to understand the words coming out of our hearts.  We cannot understand all He says, but he knows everything we say. 

The Christian goal is to become more like Jesus in our thoughts, feelings, and behavior of Jesus. But while we are becoming like Jesus, Christ is entering into us more fully into us. While we are becoming like Him,  He is also adapting Himself to become more like us.  He appreciates our character and upbringing and rejoices in our individual humanity.  His personality is revealed in what is uniquely ours.  We do not have to sound like anyone else.  Our Christlikeness is not conformity to some cultural norm, but only to His image revealed in us.   

Our personality interprets Christ to the world in a special and unique way.   Fictional characters such as Sherlock Holmes or Ebenezer Scrooge have been portrayed many times by many actors, and no two portrayals are alike.   each actor presents a faithful interpretation of the author's vision, but adjusting interpretation of the character to his own personality and times.  The same is true of us when we imitate Christ.  Christlikeness is an ongoing process of the Word becoming flesh in us. We remain faithful to Christ, but we all retain our own personhood. In this way, Christ's personality fits many people, each showing a unique aspect of the overall message.  The word became flesh--our flesh-- and still dwells among us today.

Christlikeness isn't killing our personality but a reimagining of our ourselves as Christ--not be coming something we're not, but we being more ourselves than we ever have been. We don't lose our accent--Christ takes our accent.

We are not mere imitators of Christ, but interpreters of Him to the world. This is not possible through self-suppression.   It requires the renovation of our hearts into the personal characteristics of Jesus--love, joy, peace, patience,  kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, meekness, and self control.  Outer affectations only make us look ridiculous. Christ makes us real.