God's love letters - by Liz Carter

I came across this passage from 2 Corinthians the other day, and it made me think about how we are all love letters:

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letters written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

(2 Corinthians 3:1-3)

We are letters from Christ.

That’s not always an easy thing for us to accept, is it? There are days we may feel like we are reflecting the love of God, and days where we feel like we are letters of grumpiness, misery and general rubbishness. I know that’s true for me.

As a writer, this passage speaks strongly to me of how our lives - not just our writing, but everything we do, say and think - will be a demonstration of where our hearts are. When our hearts are set on God, our lives look more like love letters from God to others. And that will be reflected in our writing, too - whether writing books and articles that are specifically Christian and for a Christian audience, or writing that is aimed towards a wider readership, not aiming to include obviously Christian content. Paul wrote of how the Corinthians showed that they were a letter from Christ.

Show, not tell. Hmm, sounds familiar?

As Christian writers, perhaps it’s not so much what we write that matters as the heart behind the writing. Whether we write mystical poetry, or high fantasy, or cosy romance, or non-fiction Christian life books - or a combination of all of the above - there are questions we can ask of ourselves, in order to ensure that the Spirit of the living God is continually writing on our hearts.

• We can ask ourselves about our motivation: What is behind our writing? What do we want from it? What’s our aim, or end goal, our purpose - and how does that goal inform how we write and what we write? Is our motivation fame or money, or is it that we simply cannot not write? As Christian writers, do we look to God for our ultimate motivation?

• We can ask ourselves about our identity: Who are we? Do we identify ourselves through our writing - what if, for some reason, our writing was taken away from us? Who would we be? Where would our identity lie? 

• We can ask ourselves about our choices: What do we spend our time on? Does the project we are working from spring from a place of goodness? By this, I don’t mean that we should all be writing exclusively Christian content, with strictly no lighthearted or humorous prose or poetry allowed - on the contrary, this kind of writing can bring great joy and some of us are called to it. What I mean is whether what we use our time on feeds our souls and gives glory to God. I know I don’t always use my time well - I am well-versed in procrastination, particularly in the use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. But perhaps it’s not in worrying about the small stuff, but in identifying where our priorities lie: Are we being a love letter from Christ today?

• We can ask ourselves about affirmation: Does what other people think matter? How much does it matter? How much time do we spend cultivating our online persona in order to receive likes? Of course, as authors today we know that online presence is important in the marketing of our books. We know that we have to get our blogs up to scratch and interact with our Twitter followers. But when we do that from a place of desperation to be affirmed, rather than a place of necessity and even joy, then it will leave us with a bitterness when the affirmations don’t come, or even when they do but leave us somewhat empty because we haven’t been cultivating the voice of the Spirit in our inner beings. I’m as guilty of this as anyone - I publish something and wait for the likes, and if they don’t come I feel vulnerable and my inner critic screams large. In the end, though, there is only one person whose approval matters, and seeking that approval is so much better for our souls than the emptiness of comparison and self-aggrandisement.

In all these matters, what do the tablets of our hearts look like? Are they written with the beauty and truth of allowing the Spirit to work through all the areas of our lives?

While self-examination is a positive thing, let’s remember the grace of God. When Paul told the Corinthians they were a letter from Christ, he wasn’t addressing a group of people who were perfect, with everything worked out, lives fixed, bodies healed and hearts set on the glory of God at all times of the day and night. He’d been fairly blunt with them earlier on about the way they were messing up in certain areas. He was writing to people who were very human and very flawed, and yet knew the incredible freedom of allowing Christ to write on their hearts and their lives, the liberation of accepting the astounding grace of a God who understands limitations and still acts with forgiveness and mercy, writing a story of peace beyond understanding and treasures through suffering. God’s story is still written on the tablets of our hearts, still seizing us with its power and unconditional saving love.

Will we allow that writing to become etched on every area of who we are today?

Liz Carter is an author and blogger, writing about faith, suffering and the great story of a God who loves and gets into the midst of us. Her first book, Catching Contentment (IVP) was published last year. She's just released a six-week Bible study course based on this, available here.