Monday Morning Manna: Be Brief Beloved

I guess it all started with my parents’ subscription to Reader’s Digest. I enjoyed reading the brief articles. I never much liked reading long bodies of material at one setting. Then I had a Seminary professor who assigned us fifty-word papers to write. He said anyone could elaborate, but an accomplished writer could abbreviate. So I guess that’s how I got to writing my one paragraph, spiritual jump-starts for the week, entitled, Dr. Dan’s Monday Morning Manna. It doesn’t quite fit in the 140 character Twitter world, but its close. And it’s biblical. In Ephesians 3:3, Paul writes of the mystery, “as I have briefly written already” and Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:12, “I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.” Having written the Monday Manna long enough to finally have 365 editions, I have recently signed a contract with Worldwide Publishing Group, and sometime in late summer “Morning Manna: Hidden and Unhidden” will be released – brief, daily jump starts for your spiritual life, each followed by a prayer to continue. I am oft reminded of the five B’s of public speaking that could apply to writing just as well – Be Brief Beloved, Be Brief. That’s it for today. Be brief this week.

Dr. Dan Crawford, Senior Professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, is the WestCoast Baptist Association’s Spiritual Life & Leadership Mentor. Follow Dan on Twitter @DrDanRC and Facebook www.facebook.com/dan.crawford.