Do you ever just take the time to think about how much the small events in your life have had a huge impact on transforming you into who you are now? Well I do, and there’s one common denominator I find in all of these small, but critical, life events. That is the presence of God’s love and grace. And this makes sense to me when I really think about it because whether we want to accept it or not, He has a plan for us and he uses these small events to piece it all together. I was thinking about this the last couple of days and I thought it’d be interesting to trace back how I got to be where I am today because I am so grateful to be in the very position I am. I linked it all the way back to meeting one person in particular two summers ago. She worked in the same office building that I did in Irvine and I would occasionally see her during lunch breaks in the cafe so I decided to introduce myself one day, enter small event number 1. I found out that she was interning for her dads architecture company. I told her that I was an engineering intern, which was relatated to her working in the architecture office, and then we started to talk about our faith and the messages they were discussing at her church, which I had also been to before.
Right from the start, I could tell she was a genuine girl with values, and we would become good friends. She’d invite me to come hangout with her and some friends on the weekend in Hunting Beach, where I met her friend who goes to CU Boulder, small event number 2. He noticed my wwjd bracelet and the cross I was wearing and told me about a club on campus he was leading called Young Life. We hit it off, talking about rock climbing and other outdoors stuff and agreed that we would definitely need to hangout when we were both back at school. That fall he invited me to meet him and some of the Young Life club members he had told me about for rock climbing at one of my favorite gyms, Boulder Rock Club. Of course I accepted, small event number 3! I met a bunch of really cool people who not only shared a love for rock climbing but also a love of Christ, something that is not always the easiest to come by in college, especially in such a large group. I really enjoyed climbing with them and made the trip up to meet them quite a few more times throughout the semester and loved it every time.
Anyways, before getting too far off topic, I want to relate this back to where I am today. When I first came to DePaul last fall, I attended the involvement fair to see what sort of activities I could get involved in and I was surprised to see a booth for Young Life club. Thinking back to the fun I had with my friends from CU Young Life, I decided to sign up for the mailing list and joined their orgsync page. Small event number 4. I quickly became wrapped up in other things, just having moved downtown and wanting to enjoy the big city life, so I didn’t make any efforts to pursue Young Life. And it wouldn’t be until this quarter that I would finally realize the effect of not having a close group of friends to share my faith with. I decided I wanted to try and get involved with Young Life, so I RSVP’d an upcoming event I had seen on Facebook and received a message from a girl (who I am really good friends with now :)) in the club inviting me to the first Young Life club meeting of the quarter. I was on the fence about whether or not I was going to actually pursue getting involved with Young Life, but she seemed so nice and encouraging that I couldn’t help but become interested and excited about checking it out. Small event number 5. Since then, I have become pretty good friends with quite a few of the students in Young Life and have even made some friends through the church I started going to with them on Sundays. This has been such an amazing chain of events for me that has brought some amazing things into my life over the past 6 weeks.
So if you were paying attention to each of the small events I made note to, you would see that they are all in some way related back to God. And it wasn’t until I really thought back on it all that I was able to realize the plan that God has had for me all along. From “coincidentally” sharing the same lunch break room as a girl who would become a good friend of mine, to her friend “randomly” noticing my wwjd bracelet and offering for me to get involved with the CU Young Life when school started back up, to “casually” receiving a Facebook message from an ambitious girl who was eager to spread the love of Christ through DePaul Young Life, you can see that the overall relationship is the desire to share my faith with others. The group of friends I have made over the last 6 weeks I can honestly say have changed my life for the best in a time where I needed it most. I didn’t have many friends at DePaul up to that point, and especially not any who encouraged me to grow my faith in so many ways. They are inspiring, loving, compassionate, caring, welcoming, unique, crazy and weird (in a good way) and overall amazing people who have brought so much happiness to me. They probably have no idea how much of an impact they have made on my life in such a short period of time and I love everything about each of them and thank them so much for the way they’ve opened their arms and welcomed me into their life. I am so excited to see where life takes me from here, especially knowing God truly does have a plan for me. I knew that it was no “coincidence” when I received that Facebook message with the invite to join them for club meetings and I have so many examples to back it up. God will do amazing things in your life if you just allow yourself to fully trust him with everything, even the small things.
-Galli
The Zephyr Gallivant 