Reimagining the Good Life with Amy Julia Becker

S2 Ep 108 Carrying Love Letters from God

May 05, 2020 Season 2 Episode 108
Reimagining the Good Life with Amy Julia Becker
S2 Ep 108 Carrying Love Letters from God
Show Notes Transcript

How does God communicate love? In this episode, Amy Julia talks about how God uses people to carry “love letters”—messages of care and kindness and hope. She shares stories of how this happens right now when we pay attention to the whispers and nudges that prompt us to reach out and care for other people in need, and she refers back to stories in the Bible that show how God has always used people to carry his messages of love and blessing. 

SHOW NOTES:

In this episode, Amy Julia speaks from Philippians 2 in order to talk about how God uses people to carry “love letters” from Him. She talks about the way God works through people, with reference to Mary and Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45) and how God is humble, with reference to 1 Corinthians 13

At the end of the episode, she mentions a recent conversation on “the And” between her friend Ginny and her 15-year old daughter Rachel, who has Down syndrome, as well as a video produced by choirs and worship leaders in the United Kingdom to sing a blessing of peace: 

Amy Julia also mentions her new podcast, Reading Small Talk, which will be available starting Thursday, May 7, in weekly installments, or is available as an audiobook here.

Connect with me:

Thanks for listening!

Note: This transcript is generated using speech recognition software and does contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.

1 (2s):
Hello. And welcome to season two of the love is stronger than fear podcast. I'm your host, Amy Julia Becker, and each week we're going to take a look at current events, AKA the Corona virus, and we're going to consider a small portion of Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul wrote this letter under adverse circumstances, and he wrote about how to know joy, peace, hope, and love, not by denying the hardship of the moment, but by knowing God in the midst of that hardship, I hope that reading the Bible in our current moment of uncertainty and turmoil will help us to turn away from fear and toward love.

1 (48s):
Thank you for joining me.

2 (52s):
So I'm going to start with an announcement that actually leads into the topic that I also want to talk about today. And the announcement is this. I wrote a book now six years ago called small talk learning from my children about what matters most. And I have been so reminded of small talk lately because it is talking about a time in my life when my kids were really little and I was home with them a lot. And it was just really hard. And I still have friends and siblings who have young children. And I'm talking about like toddler age through early elementary school children during this COVID-19 crisis where they're at home and wow, is it hard and hard in a way that I am not experiencing as the mom of kids who are 14, 11, and nine.

2 (1m 38s):
So I decided that I would take small talk and actually create a podcast and an audio book out of 12 chapters. So I picked 12 chapters out of the 30 short chapters that make up small talk and I recorded them. And they're actually going to be released one at a time as a podcast over the course of the next 12 weeks, starting on Thursday, there's a trailer for small talk that you can find. If you just, I look up my name or reading small talk in your podcast app, and I'd love for you to share it.

2 (2m 9s):
Especially if you have friends who are having a hard time being at home with young children right now, it's intended to be a short about 15 minutes, each word of encouragement. You can also download a free audio book on my website of the entire 12 chapters all at once. If that's the way you prefer to listen to things. And I mentioned all of this again by way of announcement, but also because when I was recording small talk, there's a chapter called prayer. And in it, I was reminded of this time when I was literally walking down the stairs of our house.

2 (2m 43s):
And it was almost as if in my mind, I ran into some old friends and these were friends who I hadn't seen in a long time and who I did not speak to regularly. But again, it was as if we had bumped into each other, because I had such a sense of their, and I paid enough attention to that, especially because they kept coming to mind over the course of the next, however many days that I thought, well, I guess I should be praying for them. And so I did, but I didn't know what was going on in their lives.

2 (3m 13s):
I didn't have a sense of where they were or what they were doing. And eventually I reached out to my friend and said, Hey, I know we haven't been in touch in a long time, but I've just had such a sense that I should be praying for you. And my friend wrote back. And she said, Oh my gosh, I can't tell you how much that means to me. And I know exactly why you have been praying for us because our son has been sick and we don't know what's going on. And it's been really scary. And to know that you were prompted to pray for us out of the blue, just gives me a sense that God actually does care.

2 (3m 50s):
That God actually is for us and with us and working in this baffling and hard situation, what was amazing about that whole interaction? It was really small. It was kind of something you could easily forget. In fact, I had forgotten it until I went back and read small talk. Nevertheless, I was struck at the time that I had been the courier of a love letter. I didn't know what was going on in my friends' lives, but I knew that God prompted me to pray for them. And when I told them that it was as if I brought a love letter from God to them.

2 (4m 25s):
So I was reminded of that story and of that idea of being couriers of love letters from God that we get to do that in this past week because I was recording small talk, but then I was reminded of it again, because it kept happening. So I want to tell a couple more stories before we read our passage for today about these little moments where I got to see God at work, bringing a message of love from one person to another. So let me tell another story.

2 (4m 55s):
This one is about my pastor, pastor Linda, and she's been working really hard as I think all leaders and pastors are right now. And she woke up one morning recently, and she reached out to a pastoral intern and member of our church who also grew up on a native American reservation. I'm pastor Linda knew that Tamra had been concerned about the reservation where she grew up, because she knew that there was a lot of suffering there. And pastor Linda, even though she had known about this concern for awhile, for whatever reason, when she woke up that morning, she really wanted to be able to do something.

2 (5m 32s):
So she asked Tamra, what are the needs? So Tamra reached out to some Christian women. She knew back from when she lived on the reservation. And she got a sense of the knees, which were severe and intense. And she gave that back to pastor Linda, who then sent an email to our church saying, Hey guys, I know we can't carry the burdens of the world right now. That's impossible, but have someone in our midst, this is her family. These are her friends. And therefore they're our family.

2 (6m 4s):
They're our friends. We care about them. We have someone in our midst and her people are in need, and we can do something about that. And so our church mobilized and people have been sending funds and putting together boxes. And even that was beautiful in and of itself to have our daughter. Marilee just, as soon as we got this email, say, I will put a box together and then get her allowance because she wanted to give money. So it was beautiful just for us to be invited into that work of caring for other people.

2 (6m 34s):
What was even more beautiful to me, it was when Linda was telling me this story, she said that Tamra had been in touch with Darnella. So Darnella is her contact out on the reservation? And Darnella said, you know, Tamra, I have just been feeling so alone. Darnella had moved off of the reservation years ago, but had felt God calling her to go back in order to help her people. But she felt like she was alone in that mission alone, in that desire to love. And she was thinking about leaving, especially in the midst of just the intensity of this time.

2 (7m 9s):
But then she got the call from Tamra saying, how can this whole community of people who are all the way across the country help? How can we love you? How can we care? And yes, it matters that we are actually sending physical stuff to help the people. And it matters that we're sending money and it matters that we get masks and it matters that we get clothing and books, but it also matters that we give not only our love, but a message of love to Darnella that she, as a Christian woman who has gone back to care for these people, gets the message from God that says, I love you.

2 (7m 50s):
I affirm your calling and I'm connecting you to other people in order for you to know that love and care. One more story. Another thing that's been happening, which I've told you all a little bit about is that my kids and I have been working together to understand educational inequity here in our state of Connecticut. And we're thinking especially about what's going on in this time, when my kids can be at home in front of their laptops or Chromebooks or other devices, getting internet access to their classrooms and teachers, when other kids who are just as deserving of an education in our state are not able to access those same things.

2 (8m 30s):
So we've been trying to find out what are the needs and how might we address them. So we read something called the digital equity toolkit that was presented by the state of Connecticut. And at the bottom of it, it said, email, Doug Casey, if you've got any questions. And we had sent a lot of emails to a lot of people who honestly had not responded, it's a busy time. I get that. So superintendents of school who had not responded principals of schools who had not responded various other administrators and executives, but we reached out to Doug Casey and he got back to us almost immediately.

2 (9m 2s):
And he said, let's get a call together and we'll talk. So we had a great conversation and we learned about some of the things that had already been provided a variety of computers that had been sent home with kids. Some work that the state was doing to try to address this problem of broadband internet access. But Doug Casey basically said, yes, this is awesome. We want to work together. We're going to work on trying to find some funding as well as, uh, set up a tutoring program. I'm sure I'll be telling you more about that in the weeks to come. So we had this great conversation and then hung up the phone.

2 (9m 35s):
And I got an email from Doug later that night and he said, you know, I went on your website and I just was so encouraged by the work you're doing. And I want to let you know, I'm a believer too. Doug Casey is also a believer in Jesus. And so then I went to my children and I was able to tell William and merrily who had been with me on this call. Hey guys, let me tell you about this email. I just got from mr. Casey and William said, wait, do you think God might be involved in this?

2 (10m 7s):
So it wasn't just that sense of affirmation of solidarity, of being connected to this man who we just happened to find by doing a little poking around online. But there was a sense of God also communicating to my children, that he cares about what we're doing. That he's bringing the people that we need together so that we can do our little part to help address one problem that is coming to consciousness right now, the problem of digital inequity of education, inequity has been there all along.

2 (10m 45s):
It just feels like something. We must do something to respond to right now. And God's a part of that. And he made that clear. We get to be couriers of love letters from God, because God works through human beings, which brings me to our passage from today. And I gotta be honest. I almost skipped this part of the book of Philippians because it's kind of like a housekeeping part. And I thought, huh, I don't know if I have anything to say about this. And I don't know if anyone's going to be interested up to this point in the book of Philippians.

2 (11m 20s):
And we've heard lots of lofty language. We've heard these beautiful ideas of unity and compassion and sympathy. And here we get to Timothy and to Peffer ditis, which is a name that I've never heard before and can hardly pronounce. And I'll read it to you. This is verses 19 through 30 chapter two. Paul writes, I hope in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon so that I may be cheered by news of you. I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

2 (11m 51s):
All of them are seeking their own, not those of Jesus Christ, but Timothy's work. You know how like a son with a father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me and I trusted in the Lord that I will also come soon. Still. I think it necessary to send to you a path for ditis my brother and coworker and fellow soldier, your messenger and minister to my need for he has been longing for all of you and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.

2 (12m 25s):
He was indeed so ill that he nearly died, but God had mercy on him. And not only on him, but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again now that I'm maybe less anxious, welcome him then in the Lord with all joy and honor such people, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.

2 (12m 59s):
So again, I read this passage and I thought, what is there to say about Timothy and a path for ditis? It's great that they're, you know, Paul's friends and all, and we get a little interesting detail. We think that Paul is basically saying that he's going to go to trial soon and Timothy is going to stay with him and see how it goes. Is he gonna get the death penalty or is it going to be released? So there's a little drama there. We also find out that a Pepperdine is almost died. So again, Paul is going through some rough times and he talks about God's mercy in saving a path for ditis.

2 (13m 33s):
So we recognize that Paul has a deep friendship and kinship with these people. And all of that is interesting. There are plenty of things to talk about, I guess, but I still was kind of inclined to skip it until I started thinking about what I've often told myself, what I've learned myself and what I've told other people about how to read the Bible. You ask the question, what does this passage tell us about God? And what does it tell us about us? And so I asked the question, what does this passage tell us about God?

2 (14m 4s):
And what it tells us primarily about God is that God works through people. The only way for Paul's letter to get from where he is to the Philippians is through people here. We're talking about literal couriers of letters, but that's still how God works. God still works by finding people and people who will pay even the slightest bit of attention to the whisperings and the nudgings and the leadings of the Holy spirit.

2 (14m 37s):
And he takes and uses those people to communicate love and truth and care to other people mean it's an honor and a blessing for everyone involved. There's another beautiful story that I love in the of Luke's gospel it's after Mary has found out and said yes, to being the bearer of Jesus, to being the Virgin mother, to being the one who is going to carry this child at great risk to herself, she's risking Joseph rejecting her.

2 (15m 8s):
She's risking her family rejecting her. She's risking religious rejection. She's even risking death because to be an unwed mother with no explanation for who the father is, was a possibility. There was a possibility that she would be stoned for that. So she's risking all of these things and she goes to visit Elizabeth. And before Mary even says a word, Elizabeth sees her and the baby who is in her womb, Elizabeth is Mary's older cousin, the baby who's in Elizabeth's womb leaps.

2 (15m 41s):
And Elizabeth says, Oh, Mary. And she rejoices over the child that Mary is carrying the child who probably is not even showing yet. It is an affirmation for Mary that what the angel said was true. But what God was doing was real that she wasn't hallucinating that she hadn't imagined it and that it was going to be, even though there would be sorrow involved, that it was going to be according to God's plan.

2 (16m 13s):
And according to God's love Elizabeth was the courier of the love letter to Mary, just as here at path for ditis is the courier of the love letter to the Philippians. And just as in the stories, I just mentioned, people get to carry the news and the message of God's love to other people. We get to be couriers of love letters from God. And so yes, that tells us that God works through people, but something even more stunning, I think comes up when we think about what it means for God to work through human beings, it means that God is humble earlier in this passage in Philippians two, it talks about Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, Jesus humbled himself.

2 (17m 12s):
Paul writes and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And Christians believe in this concept of a tri Yoon. God, God, the father, God, the son and God, the Holy spirit in a eternal try UNE relationship of love together. And if one member of the Trinity is humble, as we've just read that the son of God is humble, then all members of the Trinity are humble. I remember I first heard an interview about a reformation theologian, whose name I forgot, sorry about that.

2 (17m 47s):
Who talked about and wrote about the, of God. It's not something that we hear about often, but I was so struck by it because he talked about how humbling it must have been for God to create the world and then have the world rebel and make our own choices, how humbling it was, of course, for the son of God, to come into the world, to become a human baby and to endure life in the limited form of the body of Jesus, not to mention all the way to death, but then also the humility of the Holy spirit and entrusting Holy scripture to human hands.

2 (18m 30s):
The humility of God is evident in all of the ways that God interacts with human beings through creation, through Jesus and through the Bible. And we see that same humility in saying, God's saying I do not have to wow. People with my power and with supernatural miracles that seem to be out of a Marvel comic book or action movie, rather I will humbly and trust my message of love and care through relationships that will bless both the messenger and the one who receives the message I've been reflecting on very famous passage in first Corinthians 13, also written by Paul about love and how it describes God that love is patient and kind and does not insist on its own way.

2 (19m 26s):
It's amazing to think about God, not insisting on his own way, but actually interesting his way to us guiding us along that way, caring for us along that way, knowing that if we walk that way, it will be better for everyone involved, but nevertheless, patiently and kindly guiding us along it rather than insisting upon it and allowing us to be participants in the abundant and expansive love that God has for all people.

2 (19m 58s):
It also says in that passage in first Corinthians, that love does not envy. And we see this in the nature of God to share, to share his message, to share his love, to share the truth of who he is with us. God's life God's love. God's message is expansive and abundant. So what does it tell us about God? It tells us that God is incarnational working through people that God is humble in trusting his message to people.

2 (20m 32s):
And that God is loving, abundantly, expansively, patiently, kindly loving. What does this passage tell us about us? Well, one, it tells us we need other people in order to know God, we are not meant to be alone in life, and we're not meant to be alone in our spiritual quests or journeys. In fact, we are meant to be taught by other people, mentored and cared for by other people just as Mary was by Elizabeth, just as Timothy was by Paul.

2 (21m 13s):
We need those people in our lives and we are meant to be giving of ourselves to other people in a reciprocal and mutual way that allows both of us to grow. So that's one thing we need other people in order to know God. So you might ask who is the Timothy in your life? If you're in a position to be doing some teaching or some mentoring who is the Paul in your life, if you're in a place where you need some teaching or some mentoring, and probably for most of us, it's the both and that we could offer some teaching and mentoring and we also could be receiving it.

2 (21m 51s):
So who are those people in your life? But then the second thing it tells us is we get to be the messengers. We get to be the couriers of the love letters of God from one person to another. There were two videos that came my way this past weekend, both of which brought me to tears and I'm not a super weepy person and they didn't just bring me to tears. They actually stayed with me in that deep and abiding way of blessing.

2 (22m 23s):
And the first was an interview that a friend of mine who has a child with down syndrome did for a independent filmmaker. It's available on YouTube and I'll put it in the show notes. It's just a mother and a daughter asking each other questions and talking about what it means to have life together more than what it means to have down syndrome. Although they do talk about having down syndrome a little bit. So it's our friends, Jenny and Rachel, and they're talking and Jenny's talking about how having a child with down syndrome changed.

2 (22m 54s):
What she thought was important, changed her from thinking that her fancy college degree and the house she lived in and the job she had was what was important to understanding that what really mattered was love. And it just struck me that Rachel, in an of herself was the love letter to Jenny. Rachel was the messenger of grace. And I would say the same has been true for me with my own children is that they have been sent to me from God in order to teach me to care for me and to love me.

2 (23m 36s):
And I hope they, one day will say the same thing about me and their lives. The second video that was sent to me yesterday was this beautiful array of worship leaders and choirs and singers throughout the United Kingdom. They were all participating in a video to sing a blessing. The words to this song come from a blessing that's recorded in the book of numbers. And you may have heard it before. It says the Lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

2 (24m 12s):
And then they go on the Lord, turn his face toward you and give you peace. Men may his favor be upon you and a thousand generations, your family and your children and their children and their children. And I honestly, I'm getting a little choked up just talking about this video because the words are beautiful. The message is beautiful, but what's even more beautiful as the people, you have people from all different ethnicities, you've got young and old, you've got men and women and they are singing their hearts out as a blessing.

2 (24m 47s):
It is because these words are coming through these people through this beautiful array of the diverse and yet unified body of believers, that is the power, or at least part of the power in watching and experiencing this video. They are the couriers of a love letter, but they're not just couriers. They also are the love letter. We are meant to be love to one another.

2 (25m 19s):
We are meant to show one another what it looks like to live with love and grace and care. And that's what Paul is writing about here, about his friendship with Timothy and with a path for ditis about the ways that through these real human beings who get sick and who gets selfish sometimes and who screw up and who don't know what's going to happen in the future through these human beings, that is how God is going to be at work.

2 (25m 51s):
So my encouragement to all of us, and I certainly say this to myself is to look for the Timothys and the Pauls in our lives to look for the people who are bringing a love letter from God to us. It's also to be the couriers to look for the ways in which we can carry a message of love. Who's the person who's been on your mind, and you want to pray for them or to reach out and write a note or pick up the phone and text or call them.

2 (26m 21s):
Who are the people who you thought, gosh, I wonder if there is a way I could help. I wonder if there's a way I could help, even though I'm not seeming to be connected to that organization or to that cause look for ways that you can participate in the work of God, not just so that you can be the one who gives a blessing, but also so that you can be the one who receives a blessing because that's how love works giving and receiving in mutual abundant, expansive love.

2 (26m 56s):
That's how it works. I hope and pray that we get to have opportunities to do that in the weeks ahead in the midst of what I know for many people is a really hard time. I hope and pray that there will be just glimpses of the love of God and the blessing of God who is for you and for your children for a thousand generations. Thanks so much again for listening, I will add one more plug for this new podcast, especially if you're in the position of feeling like you just need a blessing right now, you just need to be the recipient of that love letter.

2 (27m 38s):
That's my desire as someone who has felt relatively stuck at home and relatively fine caring for my own kids and household and self right now, I felt like the least I could do was offer some words of encouragement. So this is my gift, my offering to those of you who are in the midst of the ordinary hard stuff of everyday life with dishes and diapers and dirty laundry and homeschooling, and trying to pay the bills and trying to not panic about what's coming next.

2 (28m 15s):
So I hope you'll check it out. The small talk, reading small talk podcast, or go over to my website and just download the free audio book, sending much love and many blessings to you and to your children and for many generations to come. So I really am signing off now, but I'm doing so with a heart that is full. And that sends out to the degree that this is possible through a podcast, love

1 (28m 42s):
And blessing grace and peace to you. Thanks again for tuning in to the love is stronger than fear podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, you can find more resources at my website, Amy, Julia, becker.com. And if you found today's episode helpful, please share it with friends and take a minute to rate and review it wherever you find your podcasts. See you next week.