Write About Now

Kari Freudenberger, who works at Standard Publishing, recently created a new blog called “7 Word Testimonies.” The idea came from the write-your-memoir-in-six-words exercise popularized by SMITH magazine’s book Not Quite What I Was Planning, which collects thousands of short and not always sweet life stories.

Kari decided to go a different direction. “Everyone has a story and now they’re putting it out there—in just six words,” she writes. “While many of them are witty or funny, most of them follow the same theme: disappointment. Like the title of the book, many people sum up their life as ‘not quite what I was planning.’ We all see people like this everyday—disillusioned, distrustful, hopeless or alone.

I would like to issue a different challenge. For those of you who have found hope, I’m giving you an outlet to share your faith and describe your life with Christ. Much like six word memoirs, I am collecting “7 Word Testimonies” from anyone who would like to contribute. They can be in sentence form, just a phrase, or seven random words combined to sum up your experience as a follower of Christ.”

In other words, welcome to your new obsession. Writing concisely is always a challenge and condensing your entire faith journey into seven words is downright hard, but the attempt is addictive.

I played around with several without finding a clear winner. “Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me” is nice but unoriginal. “But I thought…..okay, You’re in charge” kind of sums it up, but lacks punch.

My favorite—”A Christian, despite some Christians I know”—was true, but seemed a bit negative.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized my testimony could actually be just one word: Seriously?

The God who created us chose to become one of us for 30+ years? Seriously?

Each minute he manages a universe of infinite complexity but he listens to my requests? Seriously?

He loves me even though I can be monumentally unlovable, and I don’t have to earn it? Seriously?

He can forgive that? And wants to? Seriously?

Ultimately, all our testimonies come back to grace, a “scandalous grace” that prompts unbelief and can be hard to fully absorb. Perhaps we can all just share one seven word testimony—”I was lost, but now I’m found.” Although that would cut down on traffic to Kari’s blog.