CLEAN WORD IS CLEAN LIFE

By Akin Ojumu

Books are comprised of words and the novels we read are built from the layering of bricks of the words we speak. The original words may have either been spoken and then transcribed or written down directly. Either way, books are still words – a compilation of words on paper. Any book you pick up to read is nothing but the words of the author, methodically organized on paper.

But guess what? Authors aren’t the only ones rich in words. When it comes to words, there are no paupers or wordinaires. There’s an abundance of words around and we all have words. They effortlessly pour out of our mouths every second of the day. There are so many things that are beyond our reach, words aren’t one of them. The air we breathe is so thick with words, we can choke on them. 

Here are some statistics that illustrate the abundance of words at our disposal.

An average man speaks between 10,000 to 25,000 words a day. Whereas, in a day, a woman speaks an average of 15,000 to 30,000 words. In a study conducted by Psychologist Matthias Mehl of the University of Arizona, the three top talkers in the study uttered up to 47,000 words a day. 

Now, it isn’t a surprise that women generally talk more than men. Women can’t help but talk, it is the way God fashioned them to be. Although I know some men who’ll give women a run for their money in the copiousness of words they speak.

Let’s take a minute to consider the number of words contained in the books we read.

According to Jericho Writers, “The average word count for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. For young adult novels the average is 50,000-70,000 words. Non-fiction word counts sit between 70,000-120,000 words.”

The two common trim sizes for nonfiction books are 5 x 8 and 6 x 9. The 5 x 8 trim size means about 250 words per page. A 100-page book would be, then, about 25,000 words; a 150-page book would be roughly 37,500 words. The larger 6 x 9 trim size book would be about 300 words per page. These books are generally heftier in general, so for a 150-page book the target is 45,000 words and 60,000 words for a 200-page book. (Source: Jodi Brandon Editorial).

The number of words the least talkative amongst us puts out in a day is the equivalent of a 100-page book. In a year, the average person produces about 67,000-page book in the total number of words spoken.

With such a multitude of words spoken daily, why then aren’t there many more authors? Going by the volume of words that come out of the mouth of an average person in a given day, and given the number of words contained in an average book, why aren’t we all authors and novelists churning out volumes of books. Given the number of words we speak every day, there ought to be more bestsellers in our ranks.

The reason we don’t have more authors and more books published is not a factor of lacking words. Words are not our problems; we get am plenty. It isn't in the quantity of words that we are deficient. Our challenge is the quality of the words we speak. And it is in the essence of our words that we fall short. 

Sadly, large majority of what we say is crap. We drip gibberish effortlessly and ooze baloney consistently. Preponderance of what we spew out daily are empty words and proceeding out of our mouths are mindless chatters. The abundance of our hearts is vacuous and the overflow of soul is odious.

Yet hope is not lost. If you clean up your words, you’ll clean up your life. The bestseller God created you to be will emerge when you take the tattletale of your soul through the purifying drive-through of God’s Holy Word. You can become the great author God intends for you to be. But you must first clean up the words that proceed out of your mouth.