What Story and Praying in Tongues Have in Common (Disparate Things #2)

I enjoy drawing parallels between seemingly disparate things. So how is story--dare I say "fiction"--like praying in tongues?  

I know, I know--anyone reading this who doesn't believe the sign gifts are for today may see no disparity: "They're both made up!" they may reply. But I don't agree, and that's not where I'm going with this.

Let's look at one of my favorite Scripture passages, 2 Samuel 12. Here, the prophet Nathan confronts King David about his sin with Bathsheba, particularly from the angle of how it affected her husband, Uriah. 

"And the Lord sent Nathan [the prophet] to David. He came and said to him, 

"There were two men in a city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had purchased and nourished, and it grew up together with him and his children. It ate his food, drank from his cup, it lay in his arms. And it was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler (visitor) came to the rich man, and to avoid taking one from his own flock or herd to prepare [a meal] for the traveler who had come to him, he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for his guest" (2 Samuel 12:1-4 AMP 2015)

What does David say to this? He's as angered as anyone else would be and declares that the rich man deserves to die. Then Nathan lowers the boom. "YOU are the man!" 

Whoa. 

You see, this is what story does. Is the story made up? More than likely, but fiction isn't equivalent to "fake" or frivolous, as so many Christians seem to believe; it's a scenario crafted to make a point. No, what story does is bypass our defenses. It's a door into ourselves and others that we don't always take or even see. It can slip the truth into us--or skewer us with it--when other methods would fail. It does an end-run around the mind. Would David have cried, "Off with his head!" or something similar if Nathan had strode in and begun thundering the Lord's judgment (which he does detail in verses 7-14)? I don't know, but I have no doubt he'd have been indignant at the very least. Defensive, in other words. Nathan got a lot more done, a lot faster and more effectively, by telling David a story. His story engaged David's heart to listen and hear.  

Bypassing our defenses, doing an end-run around the mind, are what praying in tongues also does. Our minds are limited, and our vocabularies are limited, and sometimes we just can't pray, don't know what to pray, are bound and determined to pray what we want instead of God's will even if subconsciously, or don't know how to ask the right questions. Praying in tongues says, "Holy Spirit, pray for and through me right now because I don't have the words, I don't know God's perfect will--and even if I do, You can add to my prayer and go far beyond what I can do in my own understanding." Praying in tongues was the norm in the early church; it was a part of the empowerment bestowed at Pentecost, and Paul prayed both "with tongues and with understanding" liberally (1 Corinthians 14). 

No one is suggesting we disregard our minds (we are to be transformed by their renewing, for one thing), but they have foibles and limits. Both story and tongues are gifts and tools to bypass those limitations.