Lean messaging

Today I sent my first ever text message to one of my kids. It took a long time to type, and I thought I wrote this:

"Calvin yr jeans r washed. If u come here to get them after work ill drive u home. Mom"

Later I noticed I had made a few typos:

"Calvin yr jeans r washed. Of u come here to her them after work ill drove y home. Mom"

But what struck me in my maiden voyage is that the world of texting is a world of efficiency. This is not poetry, this is not padded political speech or bloviated SAT essay. This is no-nonsense communication for the purpose of reaching out to someone with a definite message. There is neither time nor desire to show off excessive verbiage when you are chicken-pecking. (Maybe I will get faster.)

It made me think of the Apostle Paul. He says in 1 Corinthians that he has no interest in eloquence or fine speech or in multiplying words unnecessarily but in getting the gospel across in all its plainness in words given by the Holy Spirit.

Maybe if we were all required to share the good news of Christ with others on a teeny dial pad at the rate of one letter per second, we would hone it down to something simple and urgent.

This morning I happened to read 1 Peter and found a textable summary of the gospel that tells both what Jesus did and how you and I are changed because of it and have a new capability to live now that He did it:

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness …" (1 Peter 2:23).

If I practice I might be able to type out all of Romans 6 someday.