My new “Life Verse”

A hilarious post entitled Having a ‘life verse’ appeared a few days ago on the Stuff Christians Like blog and it made me realize that I, like the anonymous author of that post, have never really adopted a favorite Bible verse that I could roll out to demonstrate my superior-yet-humble spirituality.

For one thing, my memory is terrible, and is worsening. So…um…what was I writing about? Oh, Bible verses. I need something short and pithy, along the lines of “Jesus wept” but without such a narrow focus.

Then there’s the fact that the Bible is filled with too many good candidates. Why, it’s almost as if it was written to apply to every conceivable situation, laughable as that concept may be.*

So, I’ve dropped the idea of using an actual Scriptural statement as a “life verse,” and instead have adopted a secular – albeit pretty pious, as I’m all about piety, as you well know – statement. It’s short enough that even I can remember it, and pithy enough that almost everyone will be impressed when I roll it out in the course of general conversation.

With a nod toward either Augustine or John Wesley (depending on which Wikipedia article you read), my new “life verse” is this:

This, I believe, will serve me well in many otherwise difficult situations, such as menu selections. So, for example, when ordering Tex-Mex, it will allow me to be open-minded about enchiladas, recognizing that there’s equal validity to green or red sauce, as long as (1) we all agree on the requirement of corn tortillas, and (b) we have chocolate mousse for dessert. Brilliant!

I think it has a great ring to it. Is it possible to trademark a “life verse”? I can also see a CafePress t-shirt in my future.

*That’s either sarcasm or irony, although it could be satire. I can never keep them straight. I’m pretty sure it’s not hyperbole, but don’t hold me to that.