MISSING WORDS

MISSING WORDS

Thursday, March 19, 2015

James [ESV] 1:26-27 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

  I was fortunate to have family, public school, church, Maryland Bible Institute and other teachers and mentors that emphasized “Words matter.” One aspect of their lesson being “Not just what and how said, but take notice of missing words.”

  The first half of the guidance was and still is easiest to practice. The second half takes more work. Hearing words is more natural. Noting omissions is not.

  Larry Marino, WWII Pacific combat Marine, was our BSA scoutmaster. He loved us and was both gentle and rigorous. Beyond the BSA standard regimen he added his own physical and mental exercise. One exercise was tray or table with numerous various items large and small. By either group or individually we would be briefly stopwatched in observing and then sent away. When brought back we had to determine what had been added to or taken away from the display. Scores were always higher on “added” than “missing”. (For the boys that got good at the exercise items were both added and missing. For the aces the items would be rearranged. Get good enough at it and it was played in multiples.)

  Have you noticed that “sad” is pretty much missing, and people are now more commonly “depressed”? Whatever happened to the everyday moody person, they’re now “I’m bipolar.”? And then there’s the disappearance of sin with people making mistakes and missteps; a practice that is vain with serious loss of present and eternal profit.

EBB4