Tricky Talk

Have you ever watched a movie where two people are having a conversation, but both are unaware they’re talking about totally different things? It seems the longer they talk, the more tricky things get.

Well, you have to trust me when I say this kind of tricky talk isn’t just made-for-TV fun. It happens in real life, too. But if we never give up trying to communicate, things will eventually click. Talk can be tricky, but the reward is worth the risk. Believe me – I know this is true.

You see, I’m a pastor, and one afternoon a friend and I went to visit an ailing church member. When we arrived at his house, we parked in front of his open garage where he kept his antique Cadillac. This classic automobile was a beauty to behold. Its fine paint-job and white-walled tires would make anyone take a double-look. Anyone except me, apparently! Because I promise with God as my witness, I never saw that Cadillac. I must have been too preoccupied chatting with my friend as we got out of my car and walked toward the house to notice it sitting in the garage. And this is exactly why things got so tricky.

As we approached the porch, the church member was walking out his door. We met him on the steps and engaged in polite small-talk. Of course, you have to understand my back is now turned toward the Cadillac in the garage, but the church member’s electric three-wheel scooter is parked beside me. So I began to talk about the scooter which I jokingly called a “nice little Cadillac” while he was looking over my shoulder at the actual Cadillac in his garage. Since we’re both totally unaware of what was going on, our talk became real tricky. Just listen.

“That’s a nice looking ‘Cadillac’ you’ve got there,” I said glancing down at his scooter.

Referring to his antique Cadillac in the garage, the church member answered, “Oh yeah, I’ve been having it for years.”

Being a little confused with his response because I thought scooters were fairly recent inventions, I ignored his comment and continued questioning him about the scooter: “So, you ever think about selling it? I’ve thought about buying one for my ten year old little boy so he could play with it in the yard.”

The man raised his eyebrows and then looked at me puzzled. “That thing’s way too powerful for a kid to play with! He surely couldn’t drive it around in your yard!”

Well, I wasn’t about to budge. I just figured I’d stand my ground and make my case. So I fired back, “I don’t know. My little boy handles his dirt bike without any problems. I think he could definitely handle that thing, too.”

“I don’t believe so,” the man said, tilting his head to signal his reservations about the idea of giving my kid a “Cadillac” to play with in my yard.

Thinking I could still convince him that my idea wasn’t crazy, I pushed my point further with two more questions. “How much does one of those things cost, anyway? Would you be interested in selling it?”

I’m sure he was making his pastor a really good deal on his antique Cadillac when he said, “I guess I would take maybe $10,000.00 for it.”

My jaw hit the ground! “Ten thousand dollars,” I thought. I couldn’t see how a scooter with three six-inch wheels and an electric motor could come close to costing $10,000.00. So I gently kicked one of the scooter’s little tires and voiced my confusion in a question: “How could it possibly cost ten grand?”

“Just think about it,” the man said as he looked over my shoulder toward the garage behind me. “The tires alone on that beauty are about $400.00 a piece!”

At this point, I thought I’d better end this conversation soon. It was getting more and more bizarre by the second. “How could these little tires cost $400.00 a piece? There’s barely any rubber on these things,” I wondered as I tried to convince myself I hadn’t lost my mind.

So I quickly shifted the conversation away from “cars” at this point and asked him about his health. We talked for a few more moments, and then my friend and I prayed with him before we left.

When I got back in my car and put the key in the ignition, I lifted my head and finally noticed the antique Cadillac in the garage. With a stunned expression on my face, I turned and said to my friend, “Oh, he was talking about that Cadillac!”

My partner glanced toward the garage and then toward me with a blank stare. “What ‘Cadillac’ you thought he was talking about?” he asked. As far as he could see, there was only one Cadillac around.

Then I told him how I jokingly referred to the scooter parked by the porch as a “Cadillac” when our whole conversation began. Of course, things instantly clicked for both of us, and we caved into side-splitting laughter. We sat in the driveway for a while because I was unable to see, let alone drive, as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

My friend later told me that since he saw the antique Cadillac parked in the garage when we first pulled into the driveway, he sure thought my comments and questions were strange, to say the least. He too had no idea I was talking about the scooter the whole time.

So you see – talk can be really tricky. But we should never give up on talking things out with others. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:29b to speak “only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (NIV). The benefits of good communication are worth our time and effort no matter how tricky talk can be.