just a gathering of broken people who long for who first formed them

I think C.S. Lewis had a gift from God, a gift so strong that Christian professionals in English writing feel compelled to their knees to pray for this gift for future generations and dedicate their life to that effort, to have more powerful Christian writers. I had a college professor like this in college and I took her course on C.S. Lewis And The Inklings. I'm no expert but I was fascinated by studying him. The weird thing about him, I think, is that he wrote for the radio, things that turned into some of our greatest apologetic works, but he also wrote sci-fi, and children's fiction, he seemed all over the board! But I grew to love what it seems I could see inside C.S. Lewis, not him really but what God was doing, even knowing some of his personal short-comings, I grew to love and appreciate all his works. Even though I never found a love for sci-fi, I love his sci-fi trilogy. I even read J.R.R. Tolkien differently because I know they were friends that met regularly, read each others work and talked about God. I can appreciate what God was doing with them, as broken vessels like you and me.

Sometimes being in church, observing the people around me, getting to personally interact with many of them, getting to know them over time and growing to love each of them, even just one or two at a time, is like smelling a deep meaningful aroma, for me, like the smell an old book.

I've never seen or held an author's original manuscripts but I can imagine how close I would feel to the author just holding their raw creation.

There's something beautiful about being present with other people. The opposite, being by myself and choosing isolation (in it's many forms) is like hearing and reading a lot about the greatest author of all times but never reading any of His work. I can't contemplate the beauty of God without loving the church (just a gathering of broken people who long for who first formed them). This beauty compels me to kick all my introvert tendencies, weak attempts at perfectionism and pride to the side and dive deep into my awkward socials skills to embrace ALL of God's creation. We've been in circulation for a while, we tried to update our editions but the original work is too strong to bury when we remember the Author.