chance encounters.

Don't you love it when you run into/start talking to a "random" person, and you quickly start seeing events unfolding that aren't so "random"?? Well this was the case for me and my friends this past weekend in Memphis. I remember the night before we were leaving just praying that the Lord would bless our conversations. Little did I know what the Lord had in store for me. Haha, makes me laugh.

So on the way to Memphis we were all talking about how we have no idea what we are doing after we graduate and it was a general consensus- it's totally the Lord, we have NO idea. Personally, I have just been recently stripped from what "I" wanted to do, which is case in point, I. The Lord has sort of stripped me from everything I thought I wanted. It's kind of weird spot to be in after years of "knowing" I guess. So cool at the same time though.

Therefore, we rode the trolley around downtown and decided to get off and walk for awhile. Funny. So, we are walking down the street and taking in pictures in front of these awesome doors, when a guy named Ian walks up (by the way those were his doors ha). We get to talking to him and he tells us he has a friend that has art gallery around the corner. [side note: He is not sketchy at all, so we're not like following a rando to a weird place].

We then walk into this beautiful art gallery, and we meet EPHRIAM (the artist):
He is a little 5ish foot man from Nigeria, with the most contagious smile ever. He is beaming with life. He begins talking to us about one of the pieces he has done, which symbolizes the sacredness of life, and taking each moment in for the beauty that it is, new life. Then, he starts talking about purpose (funny, in that we were just talking about it right? maybe not.). He says, "you know each of you have been given a different purpose, but to add to a global purpose because it is not about us.

Here is sweet Ephriam, with his beautiful painting about the sacredness of life.

[In my head] At this moment, I'm thinking- this can't be real. We met this random person person literally on the side of the street, and now here we are in this art gallery, with this little Nigerian pouring truth into us.

He goes on to talk about how we have got to find what makes us come alive inside and do it- that burning thing inside of us. We end up talking to this little man a little short of 45 minutes. I was filled with joy & thankfulness. He provided clarity for me at a time I was so confused. That's how the Lord works. He is faithful- even in the small things. Thanking the Lord for speaking to us in the most unlikely of places- we all couldn't help but just talk about it the rest of the day-- we were filled to overflow.

Not to mention, I wish I could just list out the entire weekend, because there other conversations with people that we met, that we're just so confirming of the Lord's faithfulness. He will speak, if we just wait on Him. His plans aren't ours, and I'm so glad they aren't!