Small Acts

I have had one thought in my head for the last few days. "Changing the world one small act of kindness at a time." Today I saw my weekly quote in my dayplanner and it of course went right along with this, which actually is the theme of the movie Evan Almighty.
Put your heart, mind, intellect, and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. -Swami Sivananda

I watched Evan Almighty on Friday night with my little brother...he complained, but it turned out to be a sweet movie. Similar to its prequel, Bruce Almighty, it was of course far-fetched, but in the end everything really made sense. It was fascinating. And I am always impressed by the way they portray God, or Morgan Freeman. While capturing God's character by dressing a man in white and making him omnipotent and all those other "omni"s is obviously impossible, the aspects of Him that a human can portray were really well done. I especially liked the part where Morgan Freeman is talking to Joan, Evan's wife, in a diner, dressed as a waiter named Al Mighty, and he mentions something to her, in casual conversation, that brought her to tears. That is really how the Lord speaks to our hearts. There are moments in our normal days where something shines out as being SO intensely personal and purposeful that we can't deny its divine source. I love those moments.

I had one of them yesterday. I decided to go to Harvest Bible Chapel...by myself. Not a lot of fun, and it just made me even more sick of this whole "being alone" business and made me miss Joaquim even more, if possible. But even though I forgot that the clocks moved ahead 1 hour on Sunday, i woke up at 10:30 and quickly got ready for an 11:15 service because I was committed to trying my best to make this church my home. It's big, and that's daunting, but I'm not going to say I didn't try. I love the messages, and I really just wanted to give it my best shot. So I went, I parked a mile away, walked inside, saw a row whose middle was open, and excused myself to squeeze past 2 women, a woman and her daughter. I sat down next to the daughter, who reminded me of a girl at Taylor that I had the misfortune of having French with once, with one seat in between us. Then she leaned over and asked, "excuse me, did you used to go to Souled Out?" And then I recognized her.

I don't think I have ever had a real conversation with Sarah, but after going to the same small church community for a few years and having lots of mutual friends, there is already a good foundation. So I scooted over to sit next to her, so grateful to just not be hanging by myself at church. That's now how church should be... Afterwards, I chatted with her and her mom for a little bit and we just decided to head to Panera. We talked for over an hour, and I was so blessed by them. They bought me lunch, listened to all my crazy stories, and shared with me. Who knew I would have gone to a church as enormous as Harvest and sat next to someone I didn't realize I knew and then had a great conversation with them over lunch? So I guess I should keep going to church there, even on days when I have no one to go with. And believe me, I can't wait to bring Joaquim there. Sheesh, maybe someday he'll be around to go with me every Sunday. That would be a dream.

On a less philosophical subject, I guess I'm truly an adult or something, because I signed a lease for an apartment with my dear friend Janell last Monday. It's in Bloomingdale, and it's a really great place...we're not moving in until April 26th though because Joaquim will be here until then, and I defintely need to save up some money. We have no furniture. I think I'll have a bed and a nice closet. Other than that, I have yet to go to IKEA.