by Ramesh Richard
Exchanging business cards has become as natural as an introductory or parting handshake. I carry three kinds of business cards: one with information for Christian believers, another with an elegant design I use for opinion leaders, and the last with simple black text on cotton-rich white stock I give to strangers who want to keep in touch.
I use them in a variety of ways: to explain the Gospel to unbelievers, write out expressions of faith, or share Bible verses with people needing comfort or perspective.
Brief, crisp communication has not always been my style. The opening chapter of my dissertation from Dallas Seminary numbered 300 pages—my readers cringed at the thought of the potential length of the finished product. I think of the first theology book I wrote and Mark Twain’s famous quote comes to mind: “Once you put it down, you can’t pick it up again!” But my days of long and obtuse writing were finished long ago.
I’ve since shifted to more concise statements, having adjusted to simpler, shorter, even speedier forms of communication. In this age of texting, tweeting and Facebooking, substantive, complex tomes don’t stand a chance of being read by many. They’re too bulky, take too much space. Brevity, on the other hand, travels light and can fit almost anywhere. Take, for example, a business card.
With the world in a spiral and history ending sooner rather than later, here are a dozen distinctive statements about God you can take into your future. These are exceptionally and entirely true about God in His relationship to you.
Each of the italicized statements below fits handwritten on the back of a business card. Post them on your mirror or your refrigerator to make theology visible daily. This way they do not remain theoretical, abstract and distant. Their small size makes them easy to carry in your hand and in your head. Most importantly, take these concise yet powerful truths and carry them in your heart.
- God thinks large-purpose, operates long-range, and emphasizes inner-quality. I am short-sighted, small-minded and outer-focused.
- God doesn’t need me—or anything I am, I do, or I own. C.S. Lewis noted something profound, “The only reason God has chosen to need us is because we need to be needed.”
- God makes the way as we obey, opens the door as we enter, and furnishes the supplies as we need them. God is not obliged to reveal the way in full or ahead of time, but as we obey, He unfolds His will to us.
- God writes the story, every person’s story. In fact, as the Psalmist writes (139:16), every day of my life was written in His book, before any of them came to be.
- God doesn’t experience unforeseen circumstances. We can’t predict the future, nor do we fully understand the present. We have some awareness of the past. But what is unforeseen to us is clear to God.
- God doesn’t make human errors—by definition. Even if the sinking of a Hong Kong ferry or the crashing of a New York airliner are attributed to human error, the pain of loss is unbearable. If God doesn’t make human errors, maybe the pain, as neither accidental nor random, is slightly more bearable. Many Christians bear witness to this more bearable pain, because God is sovereign.
- God runs a tight ship, a no-waste economy. Continuing the theme of #6, even our pain is not wasted. Evil is evil, blatantly evil. Evil is not good. But God does turn evil to good (Genesis 50:20). He doesn’t waste it, or else Satan and evil will win in the end.
- God thinks omnisciently, works in multiples, and implements His good will. Successful executives can think through several issues and implications of decisions. Chess grandmasters can think several moves ahead. But only God thinks, works and simultaneously controls and executes at all layers and levels of reality for His eternal purpose.
- God is with me and for me, forever. He is only against me when I am haughty, for He automatically resists the proud (1 Pet. 5:5). If He has not spared His very own Son, how could He not with Him also freely give us all things (Rom. 8:32)?
- God’s primary interest is not in glorifying me. The first interest of a pure and holy God is in making Himself look good through making His Son, the Lord Jesus, well known among peoples and nations. He will not let me share or steal His glory.
- God works an original history with each person. Even if life is shared, as in healthy families, God works a unique history through specific personality and temperament, sovereign gift and talent, and differing speeds of growth and maturity with each person.
- ____________________________. Would you fill in the blank with one exceptional and meaningful truth about God and send it to me at ramesh@rreach.org? Include your name, contact number and address. This truth will intensely personalize you to me. It will be acknowledged, compiled, even incorporated as the 12th truth in this list. Best of all, your conviction will minister to me at the right moment.
Multi-purpose business cards—don’t travel without them!
