Inspirational
Short Sentences
One of my colleagues in the university where I teach is a distinguished British gentleman in his 80’s.
He loves writing as much as I do, so each time we bump into each other, our topic naturally goes to what we are currently writing. He has a book published in Great Britain and he contributes regularly to British newspapers.
We exchanged manuscripts one day and as soon as we saw each other again, he exclaimed, “My, your sentences are short, Grace! I haven’t read a book written in such a manner before!” I couldn’t tell whether he was complimenting or criticizing me.
It doesn’t really matter; I can take both.
His writing style (formal and scholarly) and themes (history and world economy) are the opposite of mine. Obviously, he does not read Max Lucado.
In the aftermath of typhoon Basyang, which left us twiddling our thumbs—no electricity, no internet, no phone, no water—I revisited Lucado’s “3:16 The Numbers of Hope.”
The title is explicit; it is the verse in the Bible that summarizes the essence of the Christian faith. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (KJV)
This 26-word verse is encapsulated by the author in four short sentences, in four short paragraphs:
“He Loves.
“He gave.
“We believe.
“We live.”
These few words say everything I would have wanted to say about John 3:16.
Short sentences stuck to me like velcro when I overstayed in advertising. I fell in love with the period, the punctuation mark. I couldn’t wait using it. Now I often say to my students, who choose cutting and pasting verbose platitudes from the internet, “Love your period. It protects you from making horrendous paragraphs unclear to everyone, including you.”
I respect writers who ignore the period like my British friend and many preeminent literary authors do. (Ernest Hemingway didn’t use a period till after 424 words in Green Hills of Africa.) I love reading them, too, but I have a soft spot for writers like Max Lucado.
I particularly like his “3:16” book because in short, uncomplicated sentences, it explains the reason why I live: grace.
Date Published: July 16, 2010
