Yesterday DEE covered the “5 W’s” as we get back to journalistic basics at examiner.com. My beat is evangelism in Denver, news on prayer and news on how to pray (prayerexaminer.com) Denver’s media and arts, and the Front Range of Colorado. So many times in the last few years the approach has been to name-names and to expose wrongs in our world, that I was getting tired of reading the complaints and the problems. When a dead horse has been identified there is only so much exposure you can give the problem without it starting to smell. The who, what, where, when and why is a great rule of thumb for journalism and evangelism but the “how” is the what, that is in it for you.
Answering letters
The radio ministry of Focus on the Family aired a program that explained love. You may have seen the ad on the NFL playoff game that did the same thing. There were children explaining what John 3:16 means. This is the “how,” we hope for as journalists. To show that “God loves people living in Denver so much that He sent His son to sacrificially die so that people who believe in him will gain eternal life.” My prayer yesterday was connection. You and I have heard the verse so many times, we have seen the little guy behind the goal posts on National TV with the sign that reads: John 3:16. But how can we use this in everyday life?
How to read a love letter
People who love us write letters to us that often explain their feelings that they often have trouble with articulating. They are letters that show care and concern for us and there is real love behind the words. There may be correction in the letter and it may have a challenge for us in that relationship. Sometimes that motive helps us to change our mind and heart. There is a reset, a change that comes over us when we have a correctable spirit. marriages have been saved by a letter, people have redirected through business, and families because they got a letter. Letters when written in love gives the reader an opportunity to change.
How to answer love letters
In the coming days leading to Valentine’s Day there will be a series called “Answering love letters.” There are resources like the book “The Love Dare” and then we will hear from the best letter writers in history. We will step by step answer their love letters which define love. God loves Denver, he loves our neighborhoods and he loves people no matter where they have been, and what they have been through. In Denver and worldwide that is what evangelism is all about.
“This is the message you have heard from the beginning, we should love one another,” John writes in his letter known as 1 John 3:11.” The “How” is to love one another. Today as you drive past the billboards on 6th and Alameda, on the Interstates, Colfax and Colorado, or wherever you have to go count the messages that are crying out for love. They may seem invisible but we guarantee that there are people who are waiting for someone to answer their love letter.
The unedited life
I have lived an edited life
when rewritten, it all turns out right
and the rain is gone
and the political response
comes back clean. (there must be a cover up)
I have lived an edited life
white out and cross outs with no wipe outs to see
so the truth never comes to light (someone cleaned up the scene)
and this train I’ve been riding on
never derails- it never fails
and I arrive well dressed at the station.
and the stain I am sitting on
from the campaign trail- is never written
but something is missing in the translation
I have lived and edited life
just ask my wife- the prose are rewritten
I have dreamed unseemly dreams, muffled screams
but never bitten
and the strain of flu is gone
no one responds to the letter
and the sound is crystal clear
but there is fear
but it gets better
I wash my hands.
BT Springs
01.30.12
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