Life in the Spirit I: A Living Letter

Scripture — 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 (NRSV)

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all, and you show 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.

Devotion

This is the fourth letter to the Corinthian church that the apostle Paul and Timothy wrote. There is evidence in 1 Cor. 5:9 and 7:1 of a letter prior to 1 Corinthians. And then there’s evidence in 2 Corinthians of a letter carried by Titus and written between 1 and 2 Corinthians. I love this fact because it demonstrates Paul’s sustained effort to have hard and long conversations over time with a community and its leaders. Paul has an uncommon love for God and an uncommon love for God’s own people—even people who questioned his apostleship, authority & reliability as a leader. Yes. Even them. He engaged them word by word, hard truth by hard truth, grace by grace. These were real people with real problems in a real place. This letter in our hands traveled across miles and through hands and into hearts.

Paul states that his listeners are also letters. Living letters. Letters from Christ. So it is with you. Your life is a living letter and it is being read by others in this daily and ordinary life. Not only that, but Paul states that the Spirit is the ink. I imagine a dynamic and catalytic Spirit engaged in our lives and calling. I love the idea of an active spirit that is always moving in every page and chapter of our lives. What an encouragement it is to be co-creating a story with God’s own Spirit and our very lives! The Spirit is a story-teller and we are story-makers. Moreover, our hearts are the tablets and not tablets of stone. . .not my laptop that I am using to write these words and not your phone that you might be using to read my words. Your life is a living, active dynamic letter of the Spirit. What is the story that you are co-writing? What kind of story do you want to write?

This past week I received the sad news that a beloved mentor of mine, Gary, passed away to cancer. He was a father figure and a type of Paul in my life. He was a truth-teller and a grace-giver. He and his wife took me in during my first two years in full-time pastoral ministry and walked me through some tough valleys. The letter of Gary’s life was always unconditional love and life-giving truth. There were a few times I did not really want to hear the truths he spoke to me as a young adult. I was untested and untried. His mentorship and Spirit-filled prayers saved my life. I remember writing him a letter at one point to thank him because their love for me came in a clutch moment at a time that I could have walked away from ministry.

I am confident of this, Paul continues—that God is competent to write a letter that gives life unto others. Wherever you find yourself in the unfolding of your call, in the season you are in; whether you find yourself at the beginning, in a transition, or at the end of a season, beloved, I am confident that God is competent to fulfill your call. In your life there are lessons that were worth learning. There are poems that are worth writing. There are risks that are worth taking. There is trauma that is worth healing. There are relationships that are worth pursuing. There are words that are worth penning down for those reading, watching, learning from this letter that is called your life.

Write a good story. Write a true story.

Banner image by Alvaro Serrano on Unsplash.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Living Letters.

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