Hole-y Paper
When I was a kid my mom used to go on the dial-up internet, complete with the noises, go to a particular website, which I’m certain she typed in each time, complete with the http://www, find topic related cartoons, tear the edges off the paper from the box (family specific oddity), and print them out to share with people or hang on the fridge. Now I can just hit the share button on a comic and send it to people who I think will find it funny, topical, or too relatable. The ease with which I can now share information, complete with the appropriate credits to the creators, is astounding when I consider where we started in my lifetime.
Since I don’t think any of you are going to ask, I’m going to tell you right away about the paper from the box. We ended up with several boxes of spooled paper, folded on the perforations to lay flat in the box with holes on the sides intended to be fed into a dot matrix printer. If you tore off the edges along those perforations and split the paper at the top and bottom, you had perfectly good, if a bit fuzzy-edged, paper on which to print. I’m also 90% certain that paper came from my grandparents’ house, but I’m not sure it’s worth checking the providence of the paper as it is a minor part of the point I am trying to make today. Well, maybe not so minor.
In a day and age when so many things are digital- photographs, e-vites, mail, even the telegram has gone the way of the dodo in favor of a text, things we put down on paper seem to have a greater weight to them. But I also recently saw someone ask the question if we’re using AI to write these things and using AI to read and summarize these things, why are we even bothering to write them at all? In a day of mass produced, repetitive things, what makes something authentic?
I know I used AI to write one article and although it answered the prompt I gave it well, to me, the article I wrote with the same prompt was more special. It was something nobody else was going to come up with because their lived experiences weren’t going to fit into the box presented by AI writing. If I asked AI to write some words on how people used to print and share comics, I am willing to bet it could write something like my first paragraph but would be missing the personal story and framework of the paper with the holes in it. We as people still have something to add, even in a digital and virtual age.
But what are we adding to? Well, this is a church article, so I’m wondering if you can guess. We are adding to the good news of the gospel and the sharing of the joy of salvation. People can read Scripture. Or listen to it. People can interact with Scripture. It is living and relevant. Scripture comes first. However, we also know that our experiences, good and bad, may open up the wisdom of Scripture for someone else. Think you’re going through a rough time? You can definitely read about Christ’s suffering during the Passion or Job, well, just in general, but how much more powerful is the love of God understood when another believer is willing to share their experience with struggle, pain, suffering, and sacrifice? Let us walk down this road together. Let us journey together. Let us support and pray for each other. Let us gather in God’s name and to God’s glory.
Now, does this mean you should start a podcast? A blog? Become a social media influencer? No. What it means is that it is probably worth your time and effort to think back on your life and answer three sets of questions:
1. When was a time that I needed help or support and did not get it? How can I offer that help and support to someone else?
2. When was a time that I needed help or support and did get it? How can I offer that same help or support to someone else?
3. How can I use the resources with which I have been blessed to bless others?
One prime example of this for me has to do with math homework. I like math as a general rule. There is a beauty to me in how the numbers work and recently spent a small portion of an evening with a friend answering a mathematical question regarding efficiency in a merge-3 mobile game. My nerd street-cred is strong. However, when I took math classes in high school and college, it did not always go so well for me. There were and are certain mathematical concepts that my brain has heretofore struggled to accept as valid regardless of what the textbook says. There are some math things I do not think I will understand. What I can speak to is how patient the TA for my Calc II class was with me. Or how my classmate, because we were allowed to collaborate on the homework, and I worked together in a study group on every single assignment so that we both understood it better.
Now, when I said struggle, I don’t think math homework is the first thing most of you thought of. There are much bigger struggles in life, but math homework feels a little more universal than some others. Grief being the only exception- I have yet to meet an adult who has not lost someone. The point is that a struggle does not have to be something major for it to still be an opportunity to show someone God’s love or support them or otherwise journey with them through life. Sometimes journeying together does get to be about the celebration. Life is not supposed to be misery… God created things to be good. But I think I’ll have to write about that another time. Please enjoy this meme created from a Tweet, because faith can also be shared with humor.
