One-liners
In another life, I write code. Lots is throw away code. Useful but short lived. For those who think the previous three sentences are in code, I’m referring to computer programs. I don’t often write lengthy multi-page programs. I write a lot that run a half a page to a page, but mostly I write very short programs, often just one line long, or sometimes one long line. I may have a repetitive, tedious, and error prone task to do, and if I can write a one-liner that does it correctly, even though I’ll never use it again, I will do so.
I love the elegance of a well crafted one-liner. One can pack a lot of stuff into one line if one is creative. And when you can make it look good, even beautiful, no make that elegant, well, there’s something really satisfying in the endeavor. Of course there are pithy one-liners that have nothing to do with code, though you might be right in suggesting that compressing a lot of meaning into a few words is a kind of codifying. Putting words together in an elegant and compact way that expresses something substantial is both an art and a craft. One-liners done well can express significant values, persuade one to belief and action, and can overwhelm a book full of words.
C.J. Mahaney recently blogged an article titled “Keep Reading.” A colleague rang me up the other day and we began talking about it. I had recommended a book titled “How To Read A Book (in programming the preceding might be called a circular reference) by Mortimer Adler and my friend had just picked up a copy when he read Mahaney’s article. Mahaney quoted a bit of an old post by John Piper titled “Quantitative Hopelessness and the Immeasurable Moment” where Piper said:
What I have learned from about twenty-years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don’t begrudge the 99%.
Thus the power of one-liners. You too can reduce an entire book to a sentence. That was said tongue-in-cheek as this is not a post to critique reductionism. Actually, I’m in favor of one-liners. I also forget much of what I read. I’m lucky to get one good sentence out of a book sometimes and get it lodged somewhere in my memory so that I can actually recall it and use it later. Since I ran across three gems in the space of two days, I decided to post them. I especially love it when there is a bit of humor in the one-liner. I must confess that some of this is going to go a bit over the one sentence rule, but I believe it stays within the spirit of the challenge. Here they are.
The first one is from a book dealing with difficult people in the church.
When attacked by dragons, our normal response is to become upset or defensive, and when we feel threatened, we usually wind up dousing the fire with gasoline.1
This next is from Calvin’s Institutes (3.9.4) speaking of those who are not overly concerned with this life and have their hopes fixed on the next (of which he approves highly):
I confess, indeed, that a most accurate opinion was formed by those who thought, that the best thing was not to be born, the next best to die early.2
This last is from the famous pitcher turned preacher Billy Sunday. Sunday was really famous for his one-liners. This was supposedly offered near the end of his colorful life:
“I’m against sin,” he once said. “I’ll kick it as long as I have a foot. I’ll fight it as long as I have a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I have a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition.”3
I wish I could write like this. Maybe I can a little bit, even if it’s mostly in code.
- Marshall Shelley, vol. 1, Well-Intentioned Dragons : Ministering to Problem People in the Church, The Leadership library (Carol Stream, Ill.; Waco, Tex.: Christianity Today; Word Books, 1985), 121. ↩
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997). ↩
- Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 75. ↩
Speaking of philanthropy:
“I guess right down the hall from beatification comes crucifixion, so I better enjoy this” Bono.