For some reason, people think it's really unusual when I let an Argentine slang expression slip out. Posta (for reals). They find it odd even after I mention that I've been living the last nine months with over a dozen of them- plus Peruvians, Colombians, and the Chilean- which in turn strikes me as funny. I'm a bit of a language chameleon: who else do you expect me to talk like if not like the ones I talk with? I realized during English class last week that it goes both ways- all of my students, somewhere in their vocabulary and pronunciation, have some Oregonian in them.
They talk like me, I talk like them: just one of many side effects of life together.
Obviously, the give-and-take is quite a bit more than accent. Living with the tremendous twenty has influenced some mannerisms, habits, and jokes and has made me reevaluate my work-relationship priorities, especially when it comes to God. I'm still very much me, but a me that has been grown and shaped by others (or, if you prefer, by the Other).
This concept of influence was mulling through my mind as I read 2 Corinthians a few weeks ago. This normally doesn't happen, not because I don't read the Bible, but because I'm not a huge Pauline lit fan: his fancy Greek comes off a bit arrogant sometimes, and being a man of his time, his comments on women irritate me (women will be saved through childbirth...qué?). My favorite epistle is James, but all of this is beside the point...
The point is, I was surprised to read a distinct tone in Paul in 2 Corinthians, one that shows considerable care and concern. Paul worries that a congregation he had shared with and longed to return to is being taken advantage of by manipulative itinerant "teachers"; the Corinthians, understandably wary, have asked him for confirmation. The apostle's response is classic:
"The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This "letter" is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts 1"
As my Southern friends would say, that'll preach.
As Carolina Artana, one of my New Testament professors, once said, "your life is Gospel 2. The Biblical canon may be closed, but God's work in you is not, and that is good news."
Your life, your influence, is a letter from Christ.
This is incredibly good news for the people who will never pick up a Bible or may never walk through the doors of a church building, and yet will meet you. It is definitely comforting for those who, like me, have that letter engraved on our hearts. And it is infinitely significant for the way I live and influence as a letter written with the Holy Spirit in Times New Pearson font.
Posta.
1 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 New Living Translation
2 Gospel comes from the Old English "good spell", or good story; it's an excellent translation of the Greek ευανγελλιον, evangel, or "good news"
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