Common Touch

From early days in my preaching and teaching, I loved language. The English vocabulary is so rich. I could never for the life of me understand how some people could not progress beyond the obvious swear word, or more latterly that by the use of God's name so regularly sprinkled in their sentences, somehow imagine they have managed to get their meaning across with greater force. While still in Auckland, a close friend complimented me on the effort I put into my messages, but raised the question if I had considered sharing my heart's message in simpler language. Another friend has called me a “wordsmith,” and I enjoyed the thought – yes! that's what I want to be, a dealer in words, yet this raised for me again the question: am I connecting with the ordinary person on the street? Defence counsel need to have a connection with the jury, or the case is lost. I think I became aware of this also in my secular work, with the odd client asking the dictionary meaning of a word t...