Author: Robert

Because of being married to one of the most impressive human beings in all of creation I have recently become very interested in how people with Aspergers relate to the church. Pam does some fascinating things with people who have Aspergers as a part of her work. Since the Trinity is the central theology for all of my thought and faith I find the reality of people who long for social interaction but have to deal with various amounts of inability of dealing with social interaction compelling. There are tons of resources and people on the web who can give great definitions of Aspergers Syndrome. I am not one of those people. What I know I have learned from Pam and from limited engagement with a few people who have told me they have Aspergers. What I understand from my limited experience is that people with Aspergers usually struggle with social engagement because of an inability to get many of the rules of social engagement that the rest of us naturally pick up on. This is a very limited definition that I know some of you could expand on better than I can. Anyhow, this inability doesn’t mean that people with Aspergers do not want social interaction, in fact Pam has told me that they often long for it. Something can be fearful and longed for at the same time. Since I believe that we were created in the image of a God who is social in His very nature I find this whole situation compelling. How does the church help someone who fears and has trouble with social situations and yet desires and needs social interaction?

I don’t have the answer. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think through possible options. The one I want to try right now comes from a podcast I was listening to. In it the speaker talked about giving a lecture at Microsoft and he was upset by the fact that all the software engineers who were supposed to be listening to his lecture had their heads down in their laptops instead. He mentioned this to someone and was told they were watching a webcast of his lecture. Turns out it was more comfortable for these engineers to watch a webcast of him than to look him in the eyes all the time. A couple of “thread” programmers and I are thinking about the possibility of an app that would display a webcast of our Sunday night gatherings along with the scripture, lyrics, and PowerPoint slides. Would this make the social aspect of church easier for someone with social anxiety issues. Not sure but I am intrigued by it.

I believe the God who is community in and of Himself wants us to do whatever we can to help others connect to His community. Even if this means participating with the community through a screen instead of eye contact.

I was pretty pumped when Adny Leininger sent me a link to some very inexpensive C.S. Lewis ebooks. I don’t usually buy ebooks for books that I want to keep and have in my library BUT this is C.S. Lewis and I have all of his non-medieval literary criticism works already. The ebooks are just for ease of reading and at $2.50ish I am pretty okay with buying a couple. Several of these are on my constant re-read list. Especially “Till We Have Faces,” I’ve lost count concerning how many times I have re-read it.

So here they are:

• Till We Have Faces – I bought this one and it is my favorite C.S. Lewis work.
• Reflections on the Psalms
• Surprised by Joy – Lewis’s autobiography.
• The Four Loves – really good work concerning four Greek words that translate to English as “Love.”
• Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
• All My Road Before Me – C.S. Lewis’s diary from 1922-1927.
• The Business of Heaven – a book of daily reflections from the writing of C.S. Bought this one because it is tons easier to carry around the ebook and read as I have time.
• All My Mind Awake – an anthology of Lewis’ writing that I didn’t have so I bought the ebook version.

Inexpensive Lewis. You have to love it.

I don’t really have anything substantial to add to all that has been said and continues to be said about the bombing that took place during the Boston Marathon today. I’ve read some amazing thoughts concerning it. I’ll just add a few tweets.

Tragedy @ Boston Marathon. I am okay, but concerned about others. My thoughts and prayers are with them and their families. Stay strong.

— meb keflezighi (@runmeb) April 15, 2013

Reports of Marathon Runners that crossed finish line and continued to run to Mass General Hospital to give blood to victims #PrayforBoston

— NBC Sports Bet (@NBCSportsBet) April 15, 2013

https://twitter.com/ConnerHabib/status/323931860050771968

I posted the following to Tapestry’s facebook page asking for the members of Tapestry to start praying for the church in the Boston area:

Threads, I am sure so many of you are already praying for Boston – for those who have been hurt, for those who are taking care of loved ones and friends, and for those who feel that their entire world has been shaken and no longer feel that there is any hope. Please add the churches of Boston to your list. Pray that the “bride of Christ” (a.k.a the church) will respond in such a manner that all around see proof of a loving God who cares for Boston and the entire world. Pray that our sisters and brothers in Boston risk more than any one thinks is prudent, care more than anyone thinks is possible, and love more than most have ever experienced. Let us support our brothers and sisters in Boston as they respond to crisis in the name and love of the crucified One. They bear His image in the midst of pain and anguish. It is our job to lift them up.

I don’t know why but as a marathoner this whole thing is affecting me different from than the other violent and stupid things that seem to regularly happen in our world. Not worse. Just different. I keep finding myself thinking that Pam and the boys would have been trying to stand near the finish line so they could see me finish and how would I live with myself and something happened to them while they were trying to support me. I find myself thinking about If I had been there and finished I would have been dealing with strange feelings or, on the other hand, dealing with the feelings of having been there and not finished and feeling guilty about thinking like that when people have lost their lives. The running community is such a wonderful fraternity of people. I have no doubt that some amazing examples of support and perseverance will come from what some nut meant to be horrific.

For now I guess I will pray for Boston.

I am fairly sure I just changed a friend’s life. How, you ask? Well I simply told him what I liked about Harbor Freight. If you aren’t familiar with Harbor Freight let me take a moment and change your life too. Harbor Freight is the home of cheap tools. I mean really cheap. These aren’t tools that I would want to stake my livelihood on but they are more than adequate for the vast majority of hobbyist type projects that I work on and as I said they are CHEAP. Most of the projects I work on don’t require tools that can support Sherman tanks or handle fighting alligators or withstand the fiery gaze of Donald Trump’s arrogance. If I needed tools for such endeavors I would buy better quality tools elsewhere. The majority of the projects I work on require tools that can manage the task 7 or 8 times. I don’t want to pay premium prices for a tool that I will only need a few times in my life. So that is where Harbor Freight comes in, when I need a tool more often than renting it would justify but not often enough to put up with the cost of a premium product.

I believe my dad was the one who introduced me to Harbor Freight but it could have been any number of other friends who told me about the benefits of these cheap tools. Since someone else introduced me to Harbor Freight I like to return the favor and introduce others. I don’t have to convince people or prove to them that Harbor Freight is great. I haven’t experienced a debate yet during any of these conversations. Instead I merely tell them of the benefits I have experienced from Harbor Freight and show them the website or a flyer. People see pretty quickly what they could do for cheaper with Harbor Freight tools.

In the Christian culture this is called evangelism and in my opinion it is far too often focused on trying to convince someone else why they should believe as you do. I don’t really think Jesus needs His followers to convince others to believe in Him. He doesn’t need us to have brilliant arguments for faith or wonderful arguments to convince the unconvinced. Instead I think He wants His followers to simply share the amazing things He has done and is doing in their lives. If we share the good that the “good news” of the kingdom of God has done and is doing in our lives I am pretty convinced that many more people will see the benefit of knowing Christ and want that relationship with Him.  This requires that we actually tell people about what God has done in our lives rather than just assuming they will eventually ask.

We evangelize for (i.e. share the good news of) so many other things in our lives. From our favorite coffee house (Emy J’s), to our favorite chili dog place (my home), to our favorite author (C.S. Lewis), to the breed of dog we like best (basset hounds of course) we share their benefits and goodness so easily. In fact we usually enjoy sharing these benefits. Why would we treat our faith, what I believe to be most important, any differently. If you are a believer then be an evangelist. You were made for this purpose. Tell someone else about the good you have experienced because of Jesus in your life. I believe it should be just as easy as telling someone about Harbor Freight and Jesus will make a much bigger difference in their life. I think you will probably find yourself enjoying doing this.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Luke 24:1-12