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Dictionary.com lists two verbs under the word adapt.
The first verb is used with an object – such as, ‘I adapt my work to my
audience’, meaning I “adjust or modify” the work to a specific group or person.
The second verb is used without an object – such as ‘I
adapt,’ meaning I adjust myself to different conditions, environment,
circumstances etc.
Sometimes the two go hand in hand.
I was asked to speak to a group of students in a
Christian school some time ago. It was literacy week and I had been asked to
talk about poetry. They told me the group would include grades four to eight.
As I began to plan I realized what a big range in age that was and prayed that
the Lord would give me words and stories to engage them. I laid out a plan.
When I walked into the classroom it was packed.
Younger students in front, older in back. A row of grade eight boys stood along
the back wall, all of them with their arms crossed over their chests and blank
looks on their faces. I read their body language immediately. “No middle-aged
woman is going to get me interested in poetry.”
I immediately adapted. I had intended to use a story
about Irina Ratushinskaya, a Russian dissident imprisoned for her work, at the
end of my talk. I decided to open with it.
“You may think poetry has no power.” I spoke directly
to those boys in the back. “But let me tell you a story.” They started to lean
forward as I told them how this brave woman wrote her poetry in soap while in
prison, memorizing over 250 poems in the hope that one day they would be read.
I told them that Ms. Ratushinskaya received the Religious Freedom Award in 1987
from the Institute of Religion and Democracy. That same year she was deprived
of Russian citizenship. “Why do you think they did that?” I asked those boys.
“Because they were afraid – afraid of a poet’s words.” Words have power. Poetry
has power.
By the end of that class time I had the students
writing poetry. Some of it was very good poetry. Some of the best was written
by those older boys.
When I walked into that classroom I knew that adapting
to my audience was a matter of survival. It was crucial to being heard.
Adapting our writing to our audience is the same. The
first time I submitted a short story to a Sunday School publication, I received
a short note from the publisher. She loved the story but it was much too long
for their readers. “Cut it in half,” she advised. I groaned but I did as she
asked and it was published. That was the beginning of several years writing for
that publication. Adapting is a matter of survival.
Adapting to our audience in prayer is also the same.
Think about that. When we come before God we usually have a long list of
requests on our minds. Help this one, do that for that one, give me the desires
in my heart. But often, if we truly come into God’s presence as we pray, we
find we must adapt ourselves, we must bow humbly before Him, draw close and
listen to the One who is our audience.
We must also learn to adapt our lives to His way of
acting in the world, His way of seeing the world. As we do so we begin not only
to survive as followers of Christ, but to thrive spiritually. As the words of
Job tell us – “He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, he shall see
His face with joy, for He restores to man His righteousness” (Job 33:26).
Adapting is not an option, neither for a writer, nor
for a follower of Jesus.
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Find more of Marcia's work at www.marcialeelaycock.com and at https://medium.com/pondrings
