I came across this little article about 6-word memoirs through the wonders of StumbleUpon – the challenge derives from Ernest Hemingway who proved that he could write a 6-word ‘novel’. This was his offering:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Genius – it perfectly, achingly, succinctly evokes everything. At one level, nothing more needs saying. Nothing is hidden. But at another level, so much more could be said. Above all, the imagination is fired.
Others have since jumped onto the bandwagon, and various attempts have been compiled and published. I particularly liked graffiti artist Mare 139’s, who wrote:
Wasn’t noticed so I painted trains.
Or this anon. one:
love my cake, eat it too
But of course, it’s easy to be cynical about the exercise. Spin doctors have scared us off – we’re suspicious of lines that sound crisp and neat, when we know that reality really isn’t. And it’s an unhelpful tendency in theology too – we preachers are particularly culpable of presenting reality as too tight, too neat, too straightforward.
And yet, it’s no accident that the art of precis gets taught in schools (or at least was ‘in my day’!) – it’s a key skill in the art of textual comprehension. If one can’t summarise something well, it probably means we’ve not understood it well. There is something about Twitter (with its 140 character limit) that intensely focuses the mind (or not, as the case may be for the vast majority of tweets which are flabby and bland). This is in part what lies behind Abraham Piper’s enjoyable 22 words blog (which he calls ‘an experiment in getting to the point’).
So don’t we need both? Beware the trite and platitudinous (or even dishonest); but strive after the lucid and pithy. This was, I believe, one of John Stott’s incalculable gifts as a writer and teacher.
So how about it? A 6-word summary of the Christian message that walks the tightrope? I wonder if the apostle Paul might have suggested these words from Colossians 1:27 (ok, slightly cheating to put ‘the’ in brackets, but hey) – it’s one ofmy all-time favourite descriptions of the nature and privilege of the gospel
Christ in you, [the] hope of glory
And as a memoir/testimony? I think this would be mine, a paraphrase of Mark 9:24:
I do believe; overcome my unbelief!
So why not you give it a shot… any great 6 word summaries or testimonies out there??
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How about – “Relax. It’s not all about you”
nice – not unrelated to that gruesome 4-worder: don’t wrestle, just nestle
How about the Book of Revelation in six words?
Terror everywhere; lamb sacrificed; glory coming
How about ‘was blind but now I see’? đ
Lost, found, renewed, stumbled, renewed, glory.
How about a summary of 1 Tim 1:15
Christ Jesus came… to save sinners.
great stuff, everyone – keep ’em coming!
don’t think I could do it!
saved and sanctified by grace. Yippee!
definition of ministry and discipleship:
Working for your joy in God
turns out, his plan WAS better.
this is definitely my favourite so far!
http://danmihalache.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/bob-dylan-must-be-santa/
All the best from Dan.
“Rendevous brings sorrow tomorrow without you.”
You can have fun toying with punctuation and word order: maybe “rendevous! brings sorrow. Without you… tomorrow?” is even more evocative.
And another Revelation summary: “God rules. Jesus wins. Keep going!”
Lots of others have suggested this as an approach to Revelation, but I don’t go with it, since it does not give enough attention to the reasons why either God might not win or at least why it might not look like God is winning–or even why it matters whether or not God wins.
Only six words. Can’t say everything!
LOTS not said; still quite helpful.
Jesus must win, or I’m stuffed.
God must rule, or who’s boss?
He does rule, however it looks.
Must keep going, against all odds.
đ
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.
well done everyone…!!
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