Speak Life
Dear Friend,
With the recent news and attention being brought to mental illness, I felt myself being called to write this blog encouraging all of us to, "Speak Life," to one another.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
The purpose behind This Letter Contains Love is to encourage one another, and build each other up--or as I call it, "Speaking Life."
It started in November of 2016, when I wrote my first letter where I thanked a friend for being there for me, and spoke of how much she meant to me. On the outside I wrote, "THIS LETTER CONTAINS LOVE," not knowing how much this phrase would mean.
Months later, she had my handwriting from this letter tattooed on her wrist and another friend gave me a letter with, "THIS LETTER CONTAINS LOVE," on the outside.
Why do I think this is such a big deal? In the original letter I sent to my friend, I wrote, "You saved my life," and 10 days later my other friend was writing me the same thing, but she wouldn't give me that letter until months later.
It is a constant reminder to me that you never know what someone is going through, and to be kind and encouraging always.
“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,”
Each letter I write, my aim is to be uplifting and intentional.
So, I decided to make some letters public by posting them here.
I recently was reading, Everybody Always by Bob Goff. In chapter four he writes, "Don't tell people what they want; tell them who they are."
In the chapter he discusses how society often tells us how to dress, who to date, or where to live or work. We are told what God wants us to do and not do.
"After long enough, what looks like faith isn't really faith anymore. It's compliance," he writes.
"The problem with compliance is that it turns us into actors," he continues.
He goes on to talk about how in the Bible, God told Moses he was a leader and he became one, He told Noah he was a sailor and he became one, He told Sarah she was a mother and she became one, and He told Peter he was a rock and he led the church. Bob Goff writes that we should let God's spirit do the talking when it comes to telling people what they want.
"Here's the problem: when we make ourselves the hall monitors of other people's behavior, we risk having approval become more important than Jesus' love," Goff writes.
That's why I make it a goal in my letters to tell people the good I see in them. I think it's rare, but so important to give people praise and credit for the good they are doing, and to encourage them to continue. Being vulnerable, outgoing, kind, honest or random is a fair tradeoff for making someone's day or saving a life.
We are called to love and not to hurt, judge or shame one another. We are in life together.
So speak life.
You have an amazing friend, parent or co-worker? Tell them. Speak the good you see. After all, aren't we called to spread good news?
Someone you know has been through a tremendous season of growth? Tell them that, and you might be the reason they continue growing, chasing their dream and blossom to their fullest potential.
Let's speak less about the bad things we see in someone. Why? Because God sees those things, too, but God didn't ask us to be hall monitors. He called us to be lovers, friends, leaders, guides, shoulders to cry on, prayer warriors, mentors and advocates for one another.
Be a friend, be a leader when you need to be, forgive someone, embrace the stranger, help the lost and write a letter containing love to someone who needs it. Do these things out of love, and I bet the world becomes a little brighter today. In doing this, acting is a thing of the past, and loving becomes real life.
“God’s idea isn’t that we would just give and receive love but that we would actually become love. People who are becoming love see the beauty in others even when their off-putting behavior makes for a pretty weird mask.”