“Cartha Deloach served as J. Edgar Hoover's assistant at the FBI from 1965 to 1970. He tells a humorous story sharing insight into Hoover's quirky personality, as well as exposing the power of misunderstanding and ambiguous communication:
“One day a memo on internal security that had been sent up to Hoover came back with a message in the familiar scrawl: "Watch the borders! H." Telephones began to ring all over the building, everyone asking the same question: "Is there anything going on in Mexico or Canada we should know about?" "Maybe we ought to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service." Somebody said, "Why don't you just ask Hoover what he knows that we don't know?" But no one wanted to show his ignorance. So we called Customs and they didn't know any more than we did.
“Several days later a supervisor was again reviewing the memo when the answer to the question jumped out and smacked him in the face. The memo had been typed with the narrowest possible margins. Hoover, always fastidious, had picked up his pen and in annoyance had scrawled, "Watch the borders!" (illustrationexchange.com)
Words can be tricky things. That is why they should be used with care. This story illustrates how even plain speech can be misunderstood when the speaker and the hearer do not have a shared reference point. Of course the good news about salvation in Christ is the most valuable message we have to share. Paul speaks of the gospel as “...treasure in earthen vessels…” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Perhaps that is why he never wanted how he used his words about the good news to get in the way. He desired “...to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Paul desired his hearers to be converted to Christ by the power of God, not the power of his oratory skills (2 Corinthians 2:4-5). May the words we choose and the way we use them never obscure the cross of Christ.
God loves you!
Mike
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