The Christian Aspie: Notes from the Blog

by

Stephanie Mayberry

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Stephanie Mayberry on Smashwords

COVER IMAGE BY:

Stephanie Mayberry

The Christian Aspie: Notes from the Blog

Copyright © 2011 by Stephanie Mayberry

ISBN 978-1-4658-2376-2

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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The Christian Aspie

Notes from the Blog

by Stephanie Mayberry

Introduction

Who am I

Traffic!!!

Tithes, Offerings and Blessings

Shopping :-(

Worry – Bound to Destruction

God Speaks

Too Much People!

Meltdown

Marcus Jannes – I have no Words I am Upset

Prayer and Distractions

Education Promotes Understanding which Promotes Acceptance

Autistics Speaking Day

Weathering the Storms

Today – Loud with Strangers

People – A Quite Unexpected Outcome

God Sent me a Good Man

Bully

Too Verbose

God’s Plan – A Willing Heart

Death

Awakening – 21 Days of Prayer, Fasting and Personal Devotion

Awakening 21 – Day 1

Awakening 21 – Day 2

Awakening 21 = Day 3

Awakening 21 – Day 4

Sunday Christians

God is Good!

My Book

Leadership

Hope for the Hopeless

Imaginary Jesus

I Love My Jesus!

I’m Autistic, NOT, like, Retarded!

Is it God’s Voice or Mine?

Acts 2:38

Acceptance

Discouraged

Understanding Overstimulated – Heading for a Meltdown (a big one)

My Brother’s (or Sister’s) Keeper

God’s Will not Mine

Obedience or Rebellion?

Are you Someone’s Scorpion?

I always fit Perfectly in God’s Family!

Another Window Opened

A Moment in History – Bin Laden is Dead

Hell Week

Harold Camping, you have been deceived

The But God

Grace

Free Bread – Part 1

Free Bread – Part 2

Stimming and the Loop

The Wal-Mart Church

Focus

Father’s Day

The Devil sure had been Busy

Special Interest

Praise, Praise, Praise!

Living in Joy!

Are you Listening to Yourself?

Joy is a Choice – Part 1

Joy is a Choice – Part 2

The Perfect Trap

It is not your Time

A Wow God Day Today!

God Said, No

Why Should I Read my Bible?

Is the Bible the Word of God?

Pray for my Enemies

Fear does not Hold Me

To the Employer who Resents their Disabled Employee

Testimony!

Spiritual Pollution

Earthquake: The Day After

Committed

The Holocaust and the Warning

Lord, Change Me

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Introduction

On September 21, 2010, I started a blog called The Christian Aspie. At the time, I believed I was reaching out to help fellow Aspies (people with Asperger’s) find God and better understand Him. I had prayed about it and God laid it on my heart to start it. So I did.

Then the unexpected happened. I learned that other people were reading my little blog. Families touched by autism, teachers, church leaders as well as Aspies were being blessed by the words.

I have allowed God to lead me on this journey and this book in a collection of almost a year of posts. I did not write every day, but I did write quite a bit. What I have done, though, is add my thoughts at the end of each post. After you read a post, you will see a section, Stephanie’s Notes.

In that section I may expound upon what I wrote in the post, or I may share with you details of my life surrounding the post. Either way, I hope that each and every one blesses you in some way.

I thank you for reading this book and I hope that you walk away from it with a better understanding of the Aspie mind as well as a deeper relationship with God. I hope that you will not only read it once, but refer to it again and again, soaking up the words that God has laid on my heart.

Be blessed.

Stephanie

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Who am I

I started writing this because God laid it on my heart some time ago to share my world with you. See, I have Asperger's Syndrome (it is on the autism spectrum). I am also a Christian. Many people don't see how these two things can exist within the same person. I know, however, that they can. I know other Christians with Asperger's and I know what is in my heart.

So this will be a journey, my journey, as I grow as a Christian and navigate this confusing, noisy, cluttered world as an adult with Asperger's Syndrome (we call ourselves Aspies - it's OK, it's politically correct).

I have met several people who work with autistic children or who have autistic children and they are fascinated with me because I am adult with the condition. They say they want to pick my brain which sounds a little scary, but it just means that they want to ask me questions. They want to learn more about people who live in the autistic world. That is one of the reasons I started writing this.

But I want to learn about them too because as much of a mystery as I am to them, so they are to me.

Now, please understand that my circumstances are different from those of other people with the same condition but they are also the same in a lot of ways. There is a saying, If you have seen one person with Asperger’s, you’ve seen one person with Asperger’s It is the same with autism. While we may all share some common traits, we each have our own set of unique characteristics.

I know some autistic people and I think they are beautiful. I like them the same way I like children and animals. There is a purity, a truth, honesty in them and they are genuine. You don’t have to wonder what they mean because they just say what they mean. When I talk to them, I very rarely have to ask for clarification. With adult humans, I have to ask for clarity A LOT.

So, maybe reading this will help you better understand, at least to some degree, people with Asperger’s or even autism. Welcome to my world.

Stephanie’s Notes

This was my very first post. God had been working on me for quite some time, but I was resistant. I was afraid to put myself out there – or what I perceived as myself. Now, looking back, I realize this was my witness. This was me putting God out there.

That first month I had barely 100 visitors for the entire month. Six months later, that number had quadrupled. By around eight months in, I was getting more than 1000 visitors a month – all with no advertising except for Facebook and Twitter. But people starting sharing it and I began to receive emails. People were hungry, they were looking. And they were being blessed with the words I was putting out there.

Over the time I have been writing this, readership has grown continually. I have met some wonderful people. The thing that surprises me, though, is that my readers are not just Aspies. I have mothers reading who have autistic children and leaders in churches who have autistic members. But the most interesting thing is that there are also people who are completely untouched by autism.

God told me that this would bless many. He was right.

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Traffic!!!

I don’t think I am meant to drive. I HATE it! Traffic is the worst for me. I get upset, very upset. I can’t breathe and it is hard for me to think. My husband says it is because there is too much for me to process at once. I think that is true.

Please read this all the way through. The end is especially important.

I was in traffic yesterday. I had to go to a meeting in another city. Mapquest said it would take me 40 minutes to get there. It took me 2 hours.

I was in the traffic and the cars were everywhere! Ahead of me, they were as far as I could see. There were all the colors, lights reflecting off of mirrors and windows, sounds of horns and engines and the smells were alarming. They were doing construction on both interstates I was driving on and I could smell the cranes and equipment as well as the tar and the smells of the cars. People were pulling in front of me and the cars on the side were so close I could have reached out of my window and touched them.

By the time I got to my meeting I was very upset. I tried to not let it show, but I think they knew. The meeting went well, though and I relaxed. They told me that the traffic would not be so bad on my way back.

When I left the meeting to go home, I felt relaxed.

When I got on the interstate, though, I had not gone far when the traffic got really, really bad, even worse than before. My gas gauge was on a quarter of a tank of gas because I did not put gas in after I left the meeting. This made me nervous and upset me a lot.

I went a little way down the road in the really bad traffic but it was too much. I called my husband. I told him I was not having a good time, I was stuck in traffic and it was really bad. He was very patient with me and he talked to me in a calm, low voice (that helps me). He told me to be careful and just keep on going then when I get home relax and stay there till he got home.

Talking to him helped a lot. I did stop and get fuel so I felt better about that. Then I got back on the road and back into traffic. I got further down the road and that is when I saw what the problem was. An 18 wheeler had crashed. It looked really bad. He had been in the southbound lane and crossed the median, crashing into the northbound lane’s barrier. The front of his truck was all crashed in and the driver’s side door was open (I hope that means he was able to get out by himself and wasn’t too hurt). There were police and fire trucks and an ambulance there.

So then I felt bad. I spent the next three miles praying, asking God to forgive me for being angry at the traffic (there was no traffic at all after I passed the wreck).

Sometimes things are going on or people are doing things and we get angry about it. But if we take the time to stop and look at what is really going on (like the wreck causing the traffic), it might change our attitude toward it.

I like the quote, Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle because we all do have difficult battles, I know I do. If we would all treat each other as if we know of their personal battle, we would be kinder to each other and there wouldn’t be so much anger in the world. People would be more accepting. My husband said that is a fantasy, but he loves that I am an idealist.

Maybe I am an idealist, but wouldn't it be nice if this could happen

Stephanie’s Notes

I still don’t like to drive. In fact, I have become very adept at avoiding driving. I take a bus to work and the commuter lot is just a couple of miles from where I live right now. This means that I don’t have to drive much at all to get there and get home in the evening.

I remember that day, though. I was traumatized! I prayed and prayed – for the person in the accident, the other drivers and for myself.

Seeing the accident did turn me around, though. It was very sobering to see that. One morning I was riding with a coworker to work. Traffic was almost at a standstill. We heard of reports of an accident ahead, but it wasn’t until we actually passed the site that we understood.

A truck had caught fire, killing the driver. Later that day, I read that he was a young man with two small children. Here I was, worried about my morning commute and two little girls had just lost their daddy.

Puts it all into perspective. Very humbling.

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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Tithes, Offerings and Blessings

This is long, but it is important. Please read it anyway, I think you will like it and you will feel encouraged.

God blesses me every day. To me, every day that I can wake up and enjoy my husband, my dog, the cool fall air (now that summer is FINALLY coming to an end!) and all the beautiful, wonderful things He places in my path that bring me joy, is a day to rejoice. I think that too often we just take for granted that we will have tomorrow but we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. Really, we aren’t guaranteed another moment. It is only by God’s grace that we are here.

So, I am pretty simple. I have never been materialistic. I accept what I have and am grateful for it. God has been very good to me. I don’t have a fancy car or big house, but I don’t need all that. I have a nice little apartment with a loving husband (who is also my best friend) and a terrific dog. I live about five minutes from my church. We have food on the table, a roof over our head, tons of love; what more could I possibly want?

Anyway, sometimes God goes out of His way to do special things for me.

This past Monday was one of those times.

On Sunday, September 12, 2010, our pastor said that there would be an offering the following Sunday (September 19, 2010). He called it a sacrificial offering.

Now, I understand the whole thing about tithing pretty well, but I wasn’t sure just what an offering was. I mean, I understand the definitions of the words, but in church it could mean something different.

My husband explained it to me. He said that while your tithe is mandated by God, an offering is by choice. With an offering, there is no set percentage (like tithing – you have to give 10% of the money that you get – ALL of the money that you get), you give what you want.

I thought about it during the week and prayed about it. I wanted to give something, but I wasn’t sure how much to give or what was right. I wanted to be right, to do right.

Every morning I get a Bible verse in my email. It comes from KLOVE, a Christian radio station that is in the state where I used to live (it is in other states too, but not in the state where I live now – but I can still go on their website and listen to their shows and songs). They have what they call An Encouraging Word which is a Bible verse in your email every morning (www.klove.com/ministry/encouraging-word/). They also have a place for you to send your prayer requests and the staff gets together several times a day to pray for people.

Anyway, on Friday, September 17, 2010, my encouraging word was this verse:

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full-pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. Luke 6:38

I thought it was very appropriate for what I had been thinking about and praying about (even though I think the verse was more about what you do to honor God, not necessarily giving money).

Anyway, that Saturday, my husband and I went into DC to a museum. We had lunch and then went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get a new coffee pot (one that grinds the coffee beans and brews the coffee all in one).

The next morning, Sunday, the day of the offering, I went to the ATM and got out my tithe and offering. I won’t tell you how much I gave because that is between God and me.

I will tell you that I added up how much we spent on our day at the museum, our lunch and our new coffee pot. But really, that was money I wouldn’t really miss. So, I added a little more, added enough money that I felt the space that was left by the missing money.

I believe that you really aren’t helping someone if you don’t put yourself out a little. Well, you still help, but it is good if you can feel the space that is left by the missing time, money or whatever.

Anyway, I put in that extra money and gave my offering. Then, I left and did not think about it again (except that I hoped it helped our church). I went to the farmer’s market with my husband and we had a nice, relaxing Sunday at home.

Monday morning, though, I opened my work email (I work for a federal agency) and there was an email to me from my director (she was our acting director during a transition period recently). I opened it and the email said:

In recognition of and appreciation for your contributions and achievements to and on behalf of the Records Management Division during FY 2010, you will be receiving a performance award of $1,000. Thank you for your above and beyond service to this organization and the Agency.

I was really shocked and just stared at it for a minute. Then I checked the email address to make sure it was for me (I wasn’t thinking