As I sat down in seat 12 C, I greeted the lady sitting next to me, but she didn’t want to talk. For the next two hours, we had zero communication. As we made our final approach into Cincinnati, she was ready. She started the conversation and we talked for thirty minutes straight as we landed, waited for the gate to clear, deplaned, and walked to baggage claim.
Probably ten minutes into our conversation, she stopped and asked “Are you a pastor?” As I answered “yes” she nodded and said “I knew it. You have ‘that tone.’” She went on to assure me it wasn’t a bad thing.
A meaningful reflection of Jesus can happen when we speak with the correct tone of voice.
According to Merriam-Webster, there are nine different meanings for the word “tone.” For our purposes, tone is the accent or inflection expressive of a mood or emotion. Tone is an aspect of how we say what we say, but it is also the condition of our heart as we say it. Our tone carries as much meaning as the words we are sharing. The recipient of a message uses tone as a decoder to help understand the meaning of the message.
People pick up on our tone and infer meaning from it. The girl on the plane deciphered not only my profession but my Divine calling from my tone. It’s paramount we understand that how we sound as we speak is important. It’s not important so that we can sound good, but so God sounds good. We are Ambassadors of Jesus; He is speaking to the world through us. What we do and what we say can be received (by others) as a message from God.
As a person who struggles with tone, I know this is an important concept for us to not only acknowledge, and accept, but in which to excel. What we say matters, but how we say it matters just as much. Jesus desires to speak to the world through us and He wants us to convey not only His message, but His tone as we speak.
Keep Reflecting Jesus!