nothing routine about it

i'm still reveling in the fact that the laundry machine in my new house is just steps outside of my bedroom. it seems weird for it to be so easy to wash clothes, after spending a summer hauling a bag full of YouthWorks shirts 1.5 hours to a laundromat. it's amazing how quickly we can slip into new routines--or new versions of old routines.

as it happens, there are many new routines i am trying to establish. the newness and novelty of life in Atlanta certainly haven't worn off after one week, though i do feel like this is home now. some things i've already gotten down--like setting the security alarm and loading the dishwasher and sharing a bathroom. others i'm still working on--finding the best route home from Emory, deciding what to buy at the grocery store now that it's just me, knowing where the best gas station nearby is located.

and there is one routine, one pattern that i want to establish in my new life here, that i know is still a long time coming--church.

it's a daunting task, really. a huge, Southern city full of churches. it's more than just one on every corner--just up the road, we have Latter-Day Saints, Orthodox, and Lutheran worship buildings right in a row, with a Primitive Baptist church across the street. there are big churches and small churches, Methodist and non-Methodist, contemporary and traditional.

so what is it, exactly that i'm looking for? i wish i knew. the truthful answer is that i'm looking for God and a community of people with which to seek after Him. that doesn't necessarily narrow it down--and then, on top of that, i know that i add the qualifications of worship style, age demographic, theology. and, as with most anything, i'm waiting for that 'it' factor.

i do know that where Arden & I went this morning was probably not it. we decided to try a big Methodist church in Decatur-traditional service. i have to preface our experience by saying that today was children's Sunday, which we both understood to be a bit of a hindrance in our actual experience of the church service. today was atypical. but what i can say is that it was huge--too big, i think. and a little too "high church"-y for me (Catholics and Episcopals might laugh at my threshold for high church tolerance, but what can i say? i haven't really been in a hymn-singing, liturgy-based, doxology-and-gloria-patri-filled church since i was in middle school. my experience of church as an adult Christian has been "contemporary").

i'm going to buckhead church again this evening, to get a second impression. i'm not sure if it's exactly what i'm looking for--might be a bit too big, a bit too trendy. however, the preaching was fantastic (hologram though it was), the "flavor" and atmosphere are more of what i think i'm looking for. hopefully, as class begins this week and i begin to meet more second- and third-years, i can stop searching websites and start asking people where i might find all of these things.

this process is made especially difficult by the fact that the past experiences of "church hunting" in my life ran fairly smoothly. after leaving the church in which i was confirmed, my mother & i stumbled upon our current church with relative ease, and felt at home almost immediately. it wasn't a hard decision for us to transfer our membership there. at UNC, i spent my first year attending a traditional Methodist church based on the sole factor of distance--i could walk there. when i acquired a car sophomore year, i attended a kick-off event at Chapel Hill Bible Church in September, and decided to call it home after only a few more visits. i got plugged into the college Sunday school class, volunteered in the nursery, fellowshiped with a local family that took in college students as their own. even this summer, in Hyde County, we knew almost instantly that Swan Quarter Baptist would be our church family--and they truly were, in every way.

is it supposed to be easy, though? seeking out true community and a place to worship and meet God and experience life change. i guess we're lucky if we ever find that, much less multiple times over the course of our lives.

the really good news is that i think i'll have all of those things in my faith community at Candler. two days until i'm an official student of theology!

i'll also have one more routine to learn--and that is the routine of things at my new job! yes, i finally landed a work-study position. i'll be working in the office of the vice president. i applied for the position of office assistant as it was listed on Emory's job bank. the posting mentioned possible work on a new book on the history of Emory. as it turns out, that seems to be most of the work i'll be doing! as a former literary editor of the South Meck High yearbook, it's right up my alley and completely unexpected. i had to complete a little quiz of grammar during my interview and i guess i still have a knack for it because i was hired mere hours later. it feels good to be wanted, you know? more about that as it, too, becomes part of my routine.