Let’s Talk About Real Love

Truth and consequences—
    are you really going to stand for
  a love that waits its turn?

This weekend I had the surreal experience of going to Centre Street Church. The hugeness of it astounds me. I don’t really get big churches. The feel of the whole night seemed somehow… produced, or false, or corporate. It’s hard to describe. It’s strange to me that a church should feel like an auditorium, with jumbo-trons and cameras, with song lyrics crunched into the corner of a screen while the singer’s face is faded in and out from multiple angles. And while everyone worships differently, I think that kind of atmosphere would slowly kill my faith. Give me my small church any day.

All that said, though, the choir concert was nice and my girl-crush Kate was beautiful and we had a great time beforehand (Nick made dinner fantastically— lamb, fall vegetables, kale) and afterward at Moxie’s. While there I met Courtney and her boyfriend whom Katie had previously (and correctly) described as the boy version of me, at least as far as interests were concerned. He tried to squeak in a Trogdor reference under the radar but he should have known I’d catch it. He’s a graphic designer who likes Firefly and fantasy; we even play D&D on the same night.

The next day I went shopping with Katie and the ukulele she got is adorable. I hope we can stick with it for real and learn to play.

Instead of having a church service, we went to an old-folks home and sang carols (the most fun part!) and went around handing out presents (the scariest part). It’s daunting. But to hear that Justin sang alone for an old lady just warms my heart. So cute.

Then Lyndsay’s baptism at Friends church was amazing and touching to see. Going to Friends was a massive contrast from Centre Street on Friday, to say the least. It’d be wrong to make judgments after just going to one event at each, but it seems to me that the opportunity to get real with people and to truly be held accountable in your life is more easily done in a small community. A small community focused on Christ and on people, I mean, not image and not “stuff”.

I was destroyed by a headache today, ugh. I fell asleep after dinner and only just woke up: in time to watch the Geminids from my window.