For the past several weeks Becky and I have been streaming a French detective show. While they have given it an (odd) English title, the dialogue remains in French with English subtitles.  So much for multi-tasking.

Though I once disastrously took a couple of semesters of French in college, and though we spent a wonderful week in Paris a few years past, my ability with French is limited, to say the least. When we started watching Season 1 of our show the dialogue was a slur of background noise.  Now, well into Season 6, I am able to distinguish individual words and even understand a few of them beyond “merci” and “bon jour.” But, please, don’t turn off the English subtitles.

We have a friend in Brazil whose command of English is quite impressive. I asked him once how he had learned our language.  “Reruns of ‘Friends,’” he answered.  It’s going to take more than seven seasons of our detective show for me to get past “Je ne sais pas,” however. Any recommendations for good French reruns to stream?

I don’t think watching French dramas on a streaming app is going to bring me very close to fluency, but that slur of background noise has become recognizable as human language, and I’ve come to understand a stray word here and there. It turns out that binge streaming is an educational activity.

Just as repeated exposure to French is beginning to tune my ears to hearing and occasionally understanding individual words, repeated exposure to the word of God tunes our hearts and our minds to hear his voice and understand its meaning – even, in the words of the old hymn, to learn some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above.

In John 10 Jesus tells of the sheep who belong to the Good Shepherd.  “They hear my voice,” he says (10:27).  He also tells his disciples of his sheep from another flock, “they will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (10:16)

We don’t need to binge-read the Bible as we might binge-watch the latest Netflix series, but with daily and regular reading of the Scriptures comes an ability to hear the voice and understand the words with which it speaks – even the voice of the Good Shepherd. I use the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer. It is only one in a long list of reading plans, however, and others may suit you best.

Je ne comprendrai peut-être jamais le français, mais étonnamment, je peux apprendre à comprendre la langue de Dieu.