Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.”
I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

• Colossians 4:16-18

The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth—because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.
It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.

• 2 John 1:1-13

The elder,
To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

• 3 John 1:1-2

“The Kilns, Headington Quarry, Oxford
15/4/56

Dear Mary
Thank you for your letter of the 31st and for the enclosed poem, which I enjoyed. I think it brings all the threads together well. The complexity – the close texture – of all the great events in the Christian year impresses me more and more. Each is a window opening on the total mystery.
I sympathise with you for the unnamed shock you speak of, without the least inquisitiveness as to its nature; being sure your own decision (not to tell it) was right. Except when speaking to one’s Confessor, Doctor, or Lawyer (where the opposite holds) I suppose the rule is “When in doubt, don’t tell”. At least I have nearly always regretted doing the opposite and never once regretted holding my tongue. (Talking too much is one of my vices, by the way).
About prayer (for others) and suffering for others there’s a lot scattered through 2d Corinthians which is well worth meditation.
The reviews of S.by J.* (Don’t bother sending them – I get them) are funny. The sheer errors of fact- not to go into misunderstandings – would ruin a candidate in the most elementary exam I know!
The spring looks lovely thru’ windows here but remains bitterly cold. I go back to Cambridge the day after tomorrow.

All blessings.

Yours
Jack”

• C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

I included all of 2 John and all of one letter to an American Lady.  I apologize for the length, but my point is partly about length.

Before I go any further, the only “letter” that I have sent in the past 20 years is the annual Christmas letter that used to go to several people, but now only two couples.  There might have been some reason of urgency to have something in writing in those decades, but I call people and talk to them.  I send e-mails. And I text.

I am not saying that we need to give the US Postal Service more business.

About a month ago, I wrote about scheduling a birthday party or just a dinner date using texts.  Some people do not look at their texts more than once each week, maybe not even then.  Some people never read their e-mail.  My heart burns, or is it heartburn…  I get irritated with some people that I love.  I call them and tell them I am sending an e-mail and I want them to read the message.  I call an hour later and they confirm that it is in their inbox.  I call three weeks later and they still have not read the e-mail.

I love them, but all the conveniences in the world are not going to solve that kind of lack of communication.

But what I want to focus on is C.S. Lewis’s letter.

• He expresses thanks for her last letter.
• He expresses sympathy for the undisclosed issue she wrote about.  He did not need the details in order to feel sympathy, possibly empathy, and to pray.
• He suggests 2 Corinthians as a good book in learning more about prayer and suffering for others (assuming intercessory)
• He does not need to see the reviews of his book Surprised by Joy.  He has read them (or others like them) and found some to be laughable.
• And then the proverbial comment about the weather.
• He signs the letter with Jack.

His name was Clive Staples Lewis.  As a boy, he thought Clive Staples was too stuffy.  He named himself Jack, but only people who were close to him used that name.  In publications, he went with his initials, C.S., to avoid the stuffiness.  So, signing the letter with Jack meant he was a good friend with this American Lady.

Thank you is something that is not said often enough these days, over any platform.  Sympathy is something that can be a single word in a social media comment or a text, but does it seem heartfelt?

I guess I am strange, but I like to send a thank you to the fifty people who use one particular social media account to wish me a Happy Birthday.  I send an individual thank you to each one.  I think one year, I posted a general thank you to everyone because I did not think to even check social media until a week or two afterwards.  But I get those group posts all the time or no acknowledgement at all from nearly all my “friends.”

Some social media platforms limit the number of words or letters.  Sometimes, it takes more words than that to express how we feel.

While my post a month ago was about putting the phone down and talking with someone face to face or at least using the phone as a phone…  This time, I am thinking of the content.

Notice that C.S. Lewis was not told of the problem his American friend had, but he showed concern.  Who did she need to confide in?  A lawyer, a doctor, or a confessor?  But he showed that he loved this woman that he had never met.  He knew her from the letters that were sent back and forth.

My wife refused to allow me to say that a social media person was a “friend.”  Her first question was whether I have ever met the person.  But I know some people a few time zones away better than people in my neighborhood because they open up.  C.S. Lewis confesses in the letter that he opens up a little too much.

And as for the reviews that she did not send, I got a recent review of a post from a social media site that the post link had prompted access.  The woman was drumming up business for herself by telling me that my short story was interesting and flowed well, but it was disjointed and I needed to develop the characters better.  I might not have laughed if I had not already written more than 150 stories using the primary character in the story where she provided a critique.  But I laughed out loud…. Oops, so that some out there can understand… LOL.

The writing consultant made good points, but only if she had read half the previous stories.  Do I have to provide the backstory every time?

But I mention that in that C.S. Lewis had the same type of reaction.  If they miss the point of the writing, I might have done a better job of organizing my thoughts or not mentioning too much side story information.  But the main characters in my short stories have flesh and bone if you read enough of the stories.

And yet, we bury our heads in our phones and avoid the face to face.  We use social media instead of using the phone as a phone. 

And then, once the message has been sent and received, is there any communication being done?

Even if it is just about the weather…  The weather that changes by the time the message has been received. …

Hey, I am guilty about being too busy writing to pick up the phone, but most of my recent attempts at using the phone as a phone has been me calling other people.

Phones, and letters, work both ways.  And maybe you know someone that would be excited to hear from you.  And when you call, have something important to say.

Oh, my only living uncle called the other day.  He is 100 years old.  Happy Birthday.

Now that was important information that might have been lost if he had texted.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.