speaking kingdom

I've been having a conversation with a wise friend, Graham, about trying to find new words or frameworks within which to understand and explain my faith. I don't doubt that Jesus is worth following or that 'in him we live and move and have our being', but the words I have learned to use in speaking about that to myself and others have become increasingly unconvincing. Graham wrote that the ministry he was involved with early in his Christian life was:

'... so focussed on salvation but I wasn't entirely sure exactly why we were alive - at least I didn't have the words to articulate it or the sense to live it. Having the source of life, and yet not feeling that this is life"to the full" somehow is maddening and doubt inspiring. I think it added to my philosophy when I crashed to "try every ill to find a cure" like an undergrad Kerouc fan looking for "authentic" experience. What we all need is something that bridges the high ideals of growing the kingdom and it's justice with the earthy pleasures and satisfaction of work/life that are so indisputably true (and the profound pain that goes with each) it doesn't need to be sophisticated, it just needs to be there and alive..'

Graham isn't just talking about language, but language seems crucial to me. The odd thing is that the Bible gives us a language for that kind of living. If you could somehow learn the language of Proverbs and Romans, of John and Song of Solomon, of the Psalms and Revelation, you would be able to speak both idealistically and realistically, of both the sublime and the street-level. Jesus speaks that language in the gospels! Learning that language must be like learning any language - immersion, practice, a willingness to make an idiot of yourself, love for the nuances and idiosyncracies, a deep desire to communicate. Instead, most of the time we seem to be like people who take a phrase book around with them and point to the words we think most approximate what we 'really' mean.