Last week, I pondered the effect of social media influencers and how it called upon us to influence others as well. However, as I noted, I am slower than most when it comes to platforms such as these. And, it turns out, many of you were admittedly as slow or slower than I! So, it got me to wondering, how else might we convey this message? How else might this same idea get across in a way that those in Generation X and earlier might better understand? It was then I got to thinking, how did we convey our thoughts before the advent of social media? How did we convey a message to one another before text messaging and emails? Before all this technology came our way there was another form of communication, a form that lasted thousands of years, in fact – letters, hand-written letters.
When was the last time you hand wrote a letter? Not just a quick note inside a card, but a full page or more of hand-written correspondence? For many, it has been quite some time, I am sure. Yet, before the advent of emojis, gifs, and abbreviated text language, we would write line upon line and page upon page revealing the thoughts that lay upon our mind and heart, bearing our soul to one another.
If you stop to think about it, the majority of the New Testament is composed of letters, correspondence from someone like Paul or Peter to a church or individual expressing their care, concern, and/or direction in a matter. They often got very personal, and very direct. As I was reading one of these letters recently, I also noticed how Paul was speaking directly of our current pondering:
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; 3 and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Cor 3:2-3, NRSV)
Think about that for a moment. You don’t have to physically write a letter, because you already are one! Your life is what others read. Your actions are what others draw from the page. Your being is what communicates to others what the life of a Christian looks like. So, what are you conveying? What does your “letter” say?
Always pondering,
Pastor Steve
