TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY HAS opened the door for communication in unprecedented ways. We talk more to each other than ever before. But is all communication really effective? What is at the heart of communication? People talking to each other? That's not everything. Talking is, in and of itself, not necessarily communication. A decisive ingredient is listening—with an open heart.
When people focus only on their own interests, communication suffers. The Bible has a potent story to teach that point. Certain people had ambitious plans with a construction site called Babel (see Gen. 11:1-9.) But all of a sudden people stopped understanding each other and communication and productivity broke down "and they left off to build the city."
What had happened? The Bible says that their language was "confounded." We are not given any circumstantial reasons for that breakdown, but we are informed about the motive of the builders: a desire to make themselves a name. There was an influence at work that turned their focus on themselves, on their own concerns. They might have felt fear or pride. Those states of thought exert a hypnotic influence that turns one's attention to oneself and leads to misunderstandings. In Babel it resulted in the total breakdown of communication.
