In the midst of this church planting adventure I am continually amazed by the messiness of communication. It is shocking how easy it is to say one thing and be understood as saying something completely different. I’m learning to be much more careful about phasing and language and sometimes I feel like a stinking politician just trying to get my point across in an elegant, clear fashion.

So, this morning I was walking out the door and I happened to say something to my wife about “heading off to work at the coffee shop.” She stopped me and said, “working at the coffee shop? Don’t you mean from the coffee shop?”

My first thought was, “what’s the difference.” But, it would seem, the difference is standing behind the counter serving the coffee, and sitting at a table drinking the coffee while working. For all this time I have told people that I work at a coffee shop when I should have been saying “from”. One little word gives a dramatic change to the meaning.

Communication is delicately messy. Proceed with caution…