To my first and second cousins

          To my first and second cousins serving as missionaries in a foreign land.
          From Codey, a servant of the LORD.  Peace, love, and light from the Father to the Son to the world.  Amen.

          I feel this letter is terribly overdue, seeing as you departed from us over a week ago.  Still, I find writing in this style to be exhilarating and terribly fun; funner, even, than writing the other logical, apologetic writings on this blog.  I gather that this is because when writing these writings, I feel free to burst out with words praising God whenever I see fit, whereas during apologetic writings I must become as a fool to speak to the fool.  Since you are not fools, I can speak as a wise and informed Christian, thanks be to God and the three Persons within!
          Since I know little of you, I imagine this letter will end up a little more superficial than you or I would like.  Still, I will do my best to encourage and advise you in genuine topics of importance.
          Shaun, I could not help but notice certain fascinating similarities between you and me.  As was mentioned, you are currently writing both a fantasy book and an autobiography (I regret not asking more about them).  I find this comparable to my video game planning exploits and my endeavors on this very blog.  One is an exercise of my creativity, the other involves logical judgments of the facts.  In the same way, your fantasy book is an exercise of your creativity while your autobiography exercises your analysis of the facts.
          These gifts are surely of God; do not withhold your thanks from him.  To God's glory will these gifts enrich the lives of friend and foe alike, and by sharing them will your talents increase and multiply.  
          Do not feel inconsequential, as I do from time to time, because you do not get the glory for yourself.  On the contrary, be exceedingly glad!  For when a man dies (as every man does), his glory dies with him.  However, our God will never die, and his glory will live on with him.  By storing up your glory in him, that glory will live on forever.  To hoard it for yourself is to condemn it to your fate, which will eventually be death.  Yet because you have placed your soul in the care of God, it will live on in him.  Therefore, give him the glory also, so that it, too, can live on forever.
          What glory does a single music note have?  It lasts just seconds after it is played, then it fades away and dies.  Its glory, however minuscule, dies after seconds.  Yet the music note can also die to itself and become part of a piece of music, giving up its own glory and instead bringing glory to the song.  Is this not better?  Look at how little glory one note has alone.  Though it must give up its glory, doing so can create something infinitely more glorious.  A song is capable of immeasurable glory; yet it needs notes to cooperate for it to be created.  
          So you see?  The glory belongs to the song!  Even so, the contributions of each note are to be celebrated and appreciated.  As surely as he lives, the LORD will commend and reward you for your contributions to Truth and Eternity.
          Haley and Kylie, I thank you for teaching Olaf how to be a house dog; how to sit and snuggle while he would much rather run around and chew on everything he ought not to be chewing on.  You each possess soft hearts towards animals, the likes of such a heart I have only glimpsed.  Not to suggest that you do not already, but invite as many people as possible into that heart.  
          I am certain that, considering the circumstances within which you live, you will often meet men who will hate you.  Do not hate them back, for to do so would be to surrender to the same devices to which they have been lost.  The human tongue refers to it as sin.  It is a disease, infecting one then infecting another through contact with that one.  It creates circles of dysfunction, causing the next to infect the next to infect the next.  
          Oh how I hate this very thing about sin!  It seems unstoppable.  So many submit instead of breaking the circle.  Many do not even know that they have become a victim in a circle.  Indeed, we are all victims; our parents Adam and Eve committed sin, and their children inherited that sin.  Yet now we have been given the opportunity to die as children of Adam and live instead as children of God.  
          I am confident that you have already done this, and so I advise you, do not hate those who hate you.  For though the one who hates hates only to help himself, the Devil seeks to use him to spread his virulent Disease, which we are called not to devise a cure for, but to administer the cure that was already devised by God through his Son.  So do not hate, for while there is indeed room for the sick in the hospital, there is no room for the sick among the doctors.  Instead, love the way you love all the creatures in Creation, with it in mind that the Creator loves them.
          Lastly, to Cliff and Kari.  I fear that I probably overheard some conversations that I ought not to have overheard, specifically between Kari and Barbara.  I heard that you were afraid for your children, or you used to be to some significant degree.  This is what I have to say on the matter, to both of you: I would consider you fools if you weren't!  It is indeed rational to be afraid for them; if parents did not fear for their children they would be unable to protect them from anything dangerous.  In addition, you are going places that you are not familiar with; places that may intend ill against you, places that almost certainly will considering the message you have for them.
          Yet do not be afraid, for there is another fear that cannot even compare to this.  Fear of what might happen were you to ignore God's call to the mission field.  This would negatively affect not only you but to the people who you would have ministered to.  It is evident that they need Christ, and therefore, by extension, they need you.  The following advice is obvious and overstated, yet I feel I must give it to you anyway.  If this is indeed God's calling for you, will he not provide what you need to carry out his mission?  Such trust is radical, profound, and rarely experienced.  Still, God calls you to have this trust in him, through him, and for him.  Amen.
          I must admit a level of envy against you, for in your stories you reconciled so many souls to Christ!  It is no exaggeration to say that to every one soul that I have lead to Christ, you have lead... well, the second number depends on the grand total of people you have saved, since I have saved but one soul.  Her name is Sarah, the one whom you met on Tuesday, and even then I barely credit myself since I merely told her to borrow and read a book; shortly thereafter she accepted Christ into her heart.
          So, while you will on many occasions be tired and irritated and scared and angry, be thankful, for the LORD has counted you worthy of a great honor that many in the family of believers have been counted unworthy of.  In the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.  Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."
          While I, indeed, resent my apparent inconsequential place in God's kingdom, it is a feeling and/or position that will pass eventually.  When it does, I imagine it will be in some extremely bold way that will turn the eyes of many, simultaneously bringing much glory to God and humiliating my past resentment.

          Again I say, be thankful and bring glory to the song you have all been counted worthy of being included in, for there are many who have not yet found their place, or who have found their place and do not like it or discredit it due to lack of faith.
          Peace, love, and light from the Father to the Son to the world.  Amen.