September 26, 2008

Not long ago we were sitting at the dinner table on a Wednesday night before going to church. Jaylin said, "Dad, are you leading singing tonight?"

"Evidently so," I said.

Jaylin asked, "Dad, what does 'evidently' mean?"

I was stumped on how to explain it. The meaning was, well, evident to me. Laura said, "The evidence shows that you are going to do it."

I said, "Yes, it looks to me like I will be leading singing."

That seemed to satisfy Jaylin's curiousity on both the meaning of the word and if we would be sitting at the front of the auditorium. But I wondered how we learn the meaning of words.

Lately, Jaylin has been asking what different words mean when he hears something he doesn't recognize, which is good because it shows that he is interested in learning. And I try not to get frustrated with him when he asks something that seems rather obvious to me. I have to stop and remember that I don't know what every word means, too.

But as a kid, I don't remember running to the dictionary every time I heard an unfamiliar word, although I'm sure I did from time to time. Sometimes, I could figure out the meaning by listening to what else was said in the conversation. Probably on some occasions I just went along without knowing exactly what the word meant, not worrying about it any more.

If you have read much around here, you have probably noticed that I don't often use big words. I remember what most of the words that we learned in vocabulary lessons mean. But for whatever reason, when I talk or write, those aren't the words that come out. I would like to think that it is that I am trying to keep things simple enough that everyone can understand, or that I'm not trying to show off some great knowledge. But the truth is that my mind doesn't work that way. I apparently think in simple terms, so easy words are what I can easily produce.

I remember hearing different preachers in the past use all sorts of large words in their sermons. And I would always come away thinking, "Why couldn't they have just said it more simply than that?" Because if I had to stop and think about it, there's a good chance that someone else did, too. And that pause to figure out what a word means just might take away from our understanding of what we are hearing.

So I keep things simple, because I am a simple guy. Evidently.

When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. - Proverbs 10:19

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