Dear Friends
I love writing and
receiving personal letters.
Before dealing with neuropathy which has
impacted my fingers and my ability to grasp a pen, I used to regularly set
aside time each week to write personal notes to people. However, I stopped this
endeavor when I got a phone call from a friend, who said, "Tom. thanks for
your recent letter, but do you mind telling me what you said."
Although I still do write a few personal
letters, they are a lot fewer and shorter now. Now, most of my notes are typewritten,
computer-generated e-mails which are not quite the same as a personal
handwritten note.
Personal letters have significantly impacted
my life. In fact, it was a personal handwritten letter from a pastor named Sam
Tatem that resulted in my decision to attend seminary when I had planned on
pursuing a career in teaching and coaching.
Just this week I received a newsletter from
Alan Kahn, a friend of mine who is a church planter in Brooklyn, New York. Alan
shared a story in his church newsletter that caught my attention. It once again
reminded me of the power of handwritten notes.
"I
went to see Richard Dawkins, maybe the most famous atheist in the world, speak
at an event held in Brooklyn."
"Dawkins,
who wrote the anger-filled book The God Delusion after 9/11, has been
known as an inflammatory and outspoken critic of Christianity."
"One
of his atheist colleagues: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, also an outspoken critic of
Christianity, actually became a believer this past fall."
"Times
certainly have changed, and although Dawkins still isn't a believer, he was
willing to concede many beautiful things about Christianity."
"What
was really intriguing to me was a comment Ayaan Hirsi Ali made:"
"As
someone who was abused growing up in a radical Islamic culture, she received
many death threats as she left the religion and began to speak against it. She
would have 6 bodyguards follow her in order to shield her from attacks.
However, she mentioned she never feared Christians because they wrote letters
to her. And specifically, the Christians wrote powerful letters that said they
were praying for her."
Today
I still have Sam Tatem's letter in an old Bible that has become a personal repository of
especially meaningful or memorable letters I've received.
Sam
had read a newspaper article about our
college Fellowship of Christian Athletes group which spent weekends sharing our
faith in children's and senior citizen's
homes
Seeing
the article on our ministry in his local newspaper, he decided to write and
thank me for what we were doing. His letter was such an encouragement to me that I wrote back to thank him, and this exchange commenced
a two-year period of letter writing between
the two of us who never personally met.
In
one of those many letters we exchanged; Sam encouraged me to think about
attending seminary following my college graduation. This retired 85-year-old pastor whom I
knew only through his letters,
played a significant role in leading me along the pathway to my future
ministry.
Without
his letter would I have entered seminary instead of teaching and
coaching, I don't know, but I do know his encouragement had a profound impact
on my decision and my vocational direction, and for that I will forever
be grateful
Alan
closed his newsletter with these words: "Never dismiss the day of small
things and the impact that you can make by being faithful to follow the still
small voice of the Holy Spirit, prompting you to act" (perhaps writing some small letter of encouragement).
"Who
knows the impact we could have on souls from one such simple act of obedience?
Yours
in faith,
Tom
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