The power of small sentences by Claire Musters

‘Jesus wept.’

The shortest sentence in the Bible, and yet the one that has been bringing me the most comfort since my mum went to be with Jesus, and again during this global pandemic. 

I have gone back to John 11 over and over in recent weeks, drinking in the details. But it is this short sentence that has touched me the most, because it speaks of how much compassion Jesus has for our experiences as humans. He already knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, and yet he was still deeply moved by the grief of his friends, and wept alongside them.

Today, reading those words helps me to know that God grieves alongside me as I mourn the loss of my mum, and alongside us all as we deal with the devastation of this pandemic.

Another short sentence from that passage is: ‘I am the resurrection and the life’, closely followed by such a challenging one: ‘Do you believe this?’ – uttered before Jesus had raised Martha’s brother back to life.

I have been reading Good Grief by Malcolm Duncan; in it he points out that ‘the’ does not appear in the Greek text where Jesus spoke these words, so he actually said: ‘I am resurrection and life’ – declaring that the power of life, the power of resurrection, is found in him.

Having been so moved, challenged and comforted by such short sentences, I began to wonder about my own use of varying sentence lengths in my writing. I know it can be a powerful device, in both fiction and non-fiction, to change the length, stresses and pace of sentences. 

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of introducing Sharon Brown, author of the Sensible Shoes series (among other titles), to the book club I run. She had been due to visit my area in May, but obviously had to cancel, so has generously agreed to do online meetings with book clubs.

She invited us to ‘pray with imagination’ while she read the portion of scripture in Luke 5, describing the calling of Simon. Jesus asks to go out into his boat, then later invites him to go deeper and throw his fishing nets out, even though he had caught nothing all night.

Sharon read as neutrally as possible, asking us to think about where we would put the stresses in sentences; what cues we would add to the story – and what that revealed about where we are at. She stopped the narrative short, right after Simon says: ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’

She then asked us what tone of voice we thought Peter might have used. And how long a pause there was between Jesus asking and the actual yielding.

So often I feel the need to ensure my writing is as clear as possible, and I know that may be more of a necessity in non-fiction. In fiction you may want to leave some sentences more open-ended, for readers’ imaginations to fill in the gaps. But it made me pause and wonder: perhaps God wants to work through those spaces; those descriptions that are left vaguer; those sentences that are short and do not reveal much detail…

Thought I'd use this pic of me with Sharon,
as she met with my book group this week.

 Claire is a freelance writer, speaker and editor, mum to two gorgeous children, pastor’s wife and worship leader. Her books include Taking off the mask: daring to be the person God created you to be, Cover to Cover: Ezekiel A prophet for all times, Cover to Cover: 1–3 John Walking in the truth, Cover to Cover: David: A man after God's own heart, Insight Into Managing Conflict, Insight Into Self-acceptance and Insight Into Burnout. Her latest addition to the Insight Guides series, An Insight into Shame, was published in May 2019 and her latest Cover to Cover: Exodus God’s epic rescue was published in April 2020. She has also written a devotional on disappointment and loss (due to be published this June) and is writing a book on marriage alongside her husband. She also writes Bible study notes and magazine articles. To find out more about her, please visit www.clairemusters.com  and @CMusters on Twitter.