I have spent the last couple hours reading letters written by a dead guy. I have to be honest, these books “the letters of (fill in popular dead person’s name here)” have never really appealed to me much but in The Letters of Francis Schaeffer I have had a very different experience.
Two thoughts have stood out to me as I read. First and probably most significantly, why aren’t I more like that. And I could say I mean his super spirituality and his awesome godliness, but that’s not what I mean. Folks of his generation wrote very personal letters to people they rarely saw. Look at him, he was in Switzerland for years, writing to people who he had once had a relationship with. He wrote 17 page letters and expressed his hopes and dreams for those people.
Why don’t I do that??
I blog (sometimes) but that’s total narcissism, my blog is about me! The busy-ness of my life (and the television) which keeps me from sitting down and writing letters to people I love, is again – narcissism. Are you seeing a pattern here?
Seriously is there a person of our generation who when we die they would be able to put together a book full of letters we wrote to friends? I doubt it.
So, how about write to me?
Seriously. Don’t comment, send me an email. We can interact off the public realm and see where it goes. (jaredmlee.net (at) gmail – you know what comes next)
The second thing that really struck me was his committiment to the cause of Christ. Francis faced some serious opposition because he didn’t really like the idea of swearing allegiance to a group of people or to an institution. Rather he wanted to pursue Christ, love, and holiness.
It makes me wonder whether our denominational allegiances are distracting us from what we are really called to? Sure I understand that there are certain distinctions that are important. I am pretty reformed and see the importance of the reformed distinctions. But as the good Dr Schaeffer wrote. Isn’t allegiance to Christ all we are really called to?
As I post this to the internet I think to myself, “self, you are looking for a job, be very careful.” Is my allegiance selfish or do I say what I believe to be true regardless of the ramifications? Schaeffer gave up his income when he resigned from an orginazation which he bellieved had lost the gospel and had instead emphasized the rules and rule of men.
I hope I would be willing to do the same.