From his first day at the local cable company, one fact was clear about our new manager Nick.  Nobody was to tease him about his height.  Nick was only about 5 feet tall.  To me he seemed to take good-natured teasing as well as anybody else.  But I had never seen anybody tease him about his height, and was warned, "don't do it!"

One day as about 5 of us were having a meeting in Nick's office, the question came up as to whether or not the ceiling would be high enough to accommodate the lighting necessary to convert the room to a TV studio.  Nick stood against a wall and extended a yardstick from the top of his head to see how close it was to reaching the ceiling.  This is where a wiser man would have held his tongue, but not me. Alluding to the combined height of Nick and the yardstick I blurted out, "That's 6 feet so far."  My fellow supervisors gasped.  Their mouths fell open in shock.  Nick on the other hand dropped the yardstick and grabbed his stomach due to an uncontrollable belly laugh.  Imagine that, Nick could be teased about his height after all.  He might have only been 5 foot tall, but he was a bigger man than to let a ridiculous comment get the best of him.

This is all that it was after all.  It was simply a ridiculous response to a ridiculous situation.  You just don't see short men sticking yardsticks on their heads every day.  Nick, who knew me quite well by this time, knew better than to expect that I would have held my tongue under the circumstances.  He knew my heart.  He knew that I respected him as a manager, and loved him as a person.  He also knew that he must look pretty silly with a yardstick on top of his head.

I don't tease people in this way unless I know them pretty well.  I really don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.  I make every effort not to offend anyone by the things that I say.  Unfortunately, I can't say that I never offend by my words.  Strangely, it's not the straight up remark like "That's 6 feet so far" that gets me in trouble.  It's my day-to-day conversation that is misinterpreted.  Or the meaning of some statement of mine is misunderstood.  It's these situations where I seem to offend the most.  The worst part is that unless someone brings it to my attention, I don't even know that I've offended.  This is where my wife is a big help to me.  Often she will take me aside, and say "Did you really mean that?'

I don't believe that I'm the only one with this problem.  I believe that most often people are offended by misconstrued or misunderstood statements, rather than deliberate insults.  I wonder what it would be like if God misunderstood the meaning of some of my statements?  What if some slip of the tongue caused God to be offended at my prayers?  Fortunately, God has made provision for that, in order that I might pray with confidence  "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (Rom 8: 26&27)  It's the presence of the Spirit that allows me to pray to God boldly and without fear that my statements might be misunderstood.  I can simply tell God what's on my mind, and know that He will take it the right way.  Even if I do say the wrong thing, the Spirit Himself makes intercession.  Even if I forget to say the right thing, again the Spirit makes intercession.  I can simply tell God what's on my mind, and He understands.

What a blessing this is!  Though I live in a world where I'm often misunderstood, I can speak to my God at any time.  He always understands.  He understands what I mean.  He understands how I feel.  And He understands what it's like to be me.