FYI, BFF, LOL, ROTFL, BTW, TGIF, IDK , TTYL, THX—all common examples of a modern day foreign language of sorts. And whether you‘re fluent in it or not, you’re probably at least a little familiar with the abbreviated lingo.

But for the sake of the as yet uninitiated, here’s a quick translation: “FYI (for your information), BFF (best friend forever), LOL (laughing out loud), ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing), BTW (by the way), TGIF (thank goodness it’s Friday), IDK (I don’t know), TTYL (talk to you later) and THX (thanks).“ Due to the popularity of text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and chat rooms, these acronyms (and 1,344 others I found on an online list) emerged “tailored to the immediacy and compactness of these new communication media.” This new-speak is quick, hip and you can say a lot with minimal effort.

Oh, and one I forgot—my favorite, really: LYSM. Original to the Larsons via my clever oldest daughter, we have begun employing it frequently when we text or email one another: love you so much. A sentiment such as this bears repeating over...and over...and over again. It reminds us that we are important to one another, we care for one another and we so need one another.

Simply texting or typing four letters doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot, though. You have to mean it. You have to do it. You have to show it. It might involve remembering something someone else finds important, purposing to be thoughtful or doing something for another you’d rather not do—even if the recipient appears unworthy of it. LYSM requires action with no strings attached.

While I’m pretty sure those letters were not engraved on Christ’s cross, they might well have been. Jesus was God and he was man. Knowing completely what lay ahead of Him on that cross, He couldn’t help but not want it to be so. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He said in the Garden of Gethsemane. “...Going a little farther, He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matthew 26:39, 39b) Because of His great and all-encompassing love for us, He went ahead and submitted to His Father’s will—the greatest show of love in action ever shown.

For Jesus, LYSM meant loving so much that He died and rose again for people who didn’t love Him, didn’t want Him and certainly didn’t deserve Him. This sort of love is difficult to understand and even harder to emulate. But that’s the Christ follower’s task, as Jesus Himself instructed in Luke 6:40 - “students are not above their teacher, but all who are fully trained will be like their teacher.” We are to give when we’d rather keep, be patient when patience is tried, be kind when mean is easier—even when it seems to be completely unwarranted. That’s LYSM, in any language.