Connecting Context

My wife and I were eating in a chain sandwich shop one Saturday and being the strange hyper-aware observer of life that I am, I did a double take when I saw this sign attached onto the door of their bottled water cooler. There are just 4 simple words in this entire message but 1 of them changes the perspective on the entire communication, not based on the message itself but on the location of the message.

When we believe we have said all the right things but are puzzled as to why we didn’t connect to our audience, we need to check the sign hanging around our neck that day. Our context just might be confusing the communication.

The quiet words of the wise are more effective than the ranting of a king of fools. —Ecclesiastes 9:17 MSG