Parlez-Vous Anglais? A Meditatio in Montpellier

Well, my family and I have just finished our first week in Montpellier - part of our larger pilgrimage lasting for 5 months as we lead a semester abroad program for Westmont College. As many of you know, my wife is a French national and I have only come to loving and learning about all things French, myself being a German historian, later in life. All that to say, my French is not very good. Being a PhD who gains a lot of his identity from words - their creativity, their beauty, their power, their eloquence, I have been reminded daily this week that to live in a culture where one does not speak or understand a language is a unique place of powerlessness - where one is totally "at the mercy of others." That last phrase is telling because it is not a phrase that we would relish or consider positive. To be at another's mercy is to be vulnerable, exposed, and defenseless. But once we push past this initial wave of fear we realize that it is a bit misplaced. We are always "at the mercy of others" and more often than not, I have been reminded, they are merciful. Furthermore, I realize that I often hide behind an illusion of self-sufficiency which obscures the fact that I rely upon others for a whole range of things - I can't change the oil in my car, grow my own food, medically care for my wife or my children, and I don't even know where the local dump for my trash is. But more than that, embracing my own powerlessness has allowed me to grow particularly aware that I live every day by God's mercies, which, the psalmist reminds me, are new every morning. So, what does this mean right now? Well, it means that the most important phrase that you should learn first in any language (spiritual included) is "thank you." Second, to be at the mercy of another is what salvation and our life with God is founded upon - at our most vulnerable, incapable, and powerless point - God was merciful to us in sending His Son. Finally, it means that being a Christian is not simply the recognition that one is to be merciful to others but to also be ever thankful and aware for the mercies that one receives from God and strangers. And who knows, maybe that smiling Frenchman named Jean Michel is an angel unaware. Just maybe, on the rue de l'Universitaire when you are lost and a bit afraid - at the mercy of others, he is the mercy of God.