Today was another time day. A long phone conversation with a friend in DC.
For someone with a such boisterous personality that never had any trouble making friends, it was really, really difficult for me to readjust to life in DC when I moved home from Knoxville, Tenn. (The Tennessee thing will make more sense after you read this.) I actually didn't want to move back home at all. But the job market for someone looking for a career in political journalism isn't exactly happening in Knoxville, so it just wasn't realistic for me to stay there.
Once settled back home, I thought I would pick up where I left off and find a flurry of Christian friends at whatever church I ended up choosing. I was so wrong.
I don't know what it is about Bible Belt Christians, but it's vastly different from the Christians I found at home. Sad thing is, I've found I'm not alone in feeling what I can only describe as Christianity culture shock in churches and their communities outside the Bible Belt. It's just different.
Even as a mom, surrounded by moms on Sundays as we dropped our kiddos off at daycare and Sunday school, I couldn't find or make friends. I started to think something was wrong with me and fell into depression, in part, from feeling the spiritual isolation. I didn't realize it was so difficult for women to make friends. Let me clarify: I didn't realize it was so difficult for Christian women to find and make Christian friends.
This post has a happy ending, though. After what I thought was entirely too long, I finally had a breakthrough with two girls in my small group study of the life-altering, ridiculously phenomenal book, Boundaries. Through the study, the three of us faced some ugly, ugly issues and insecurities, laughed and cried about them, and bonded. Post-boundaries, we try our best to keep one another accountable, ensuring we apply what we learned in our lives so we don't go crazy.
But, we all slip up, and subsequently feel like we're going crazy. Enter long phone conversations since my move to Florida. We have had to be intentional about our phone dates. It takes time and commitment, but it's worth it. Sunday was a commitment night, and it was so worth it.
