Tacit: Understood without being openly expressed, implied, silent or unvoiced.
“A tacit agreement” would be one in which both people were on the same page. It’s kind of like the CIA agents who are sneaking into the bad guy’s fortress. They don’t need to talk. They know what needs to be done, and they do it. That’s a tacit agreement.
or
It’s like a mom and her four-year old standing next to a precariously stacked display of Pringle’s cans. The child looks up at the mom. The mom glances down at the child, and without a word, that little fella knows that dislodging a can from the bottom is a major no-no.
That is a tacit understanding of how things need to go and what needs to happen to get them there.
Those are good examples, and I suppose the word “tacit” is normally used in conjunction with both sides having the same understanding of something, but what about those times when we think the other person knows what our silence means, and they really don’t. The word “tacit” might not apply there.
There are probably things that should never go unsaid. There are certainly things that can not be left up to a mere tacit agreement. Maybe we think the other person understands and knows where we’re coming from, but sometimes, until we actually say it, all they have is their own perception to go on. Nope. Some things can not be done tacitly. They must be said and heard.
Here’s a list of some things I think we should never leave to a tacit understanding:
1. Hope…built on faith and covered in love. The good news.
2. LOVE. Maybe there are some times we don’t yell from the roof tops about our love, but for the most part I think we probably don’t tell the people in our lives enough how much we love them.
3. Rendezvous points. Never, never, never assume that the other person knows which entrance of the mall will be your meeting point. This must be clearly explained with specific store names and times.
4. The tax refund. If you’re lucky enough to get a tax refund and you have someone in your life you should probably share it with, don’t think that it goes without saying exactly how the money should be spent.
5. If you start a conversation with the words, “It goes without saying”, then that could mean you actually need to be saying something a lot more. There’s a difference between tacit understandings and taking someone else for granted. Make sure you know the difference.
So before I go running off into the rest of my week and assume you know how much I appreciate you, let me just say I am very grateful for you. I’ve gotten so many encouraging and challenging comments from so many of you that sometimes I just sit quietly with my keyboard and a prayer of thankfulness on my lips. It amazes me, and I know God is doing stuff with all of you that I can’t even begin to understand. So here’s a thank you for you, and a praise for our God. How great is his love and forgiveness that he left nothing implied, but spelled it all out with his hands and his feet and an empty tomb.
