sitting with joan.

Today at church I decided to sit next to a wonderful friend of mine. She is one of the most passionate people I've met when it comes to God and faith. I'm sitting watching the teaching, still slightly irritated (I'll admit it. Judge all you want) arms crossed, just listening, trying to absorb. Sometimes I even close my eyes at church to block out distractions.
As I'm sitting next to my friend, I notice she is writing. She has note cards in her hand and she is writing verses that aren't being taught. I look up one of the verses she had written and noticed it went perfectly with the teaching. I look at her bible, so well loved and read that the spine was beat up, pages looked like they were going to fall out, edges soft and full of notes from reading so often. I was amazed watching her, I'm always amazed when people can pull verses out of their heads.
After service I asked her what she writes about. I explained that I always see her writing, that she always has note cards, or a pen to write in her bible, ready to go.
she takes the notecard and says, "actually i wrote this for you."
i was a bit shocked as she handed it to me. it's funny, after a teaching on spiritual growth and maturity one of the most mature believers i know hands me a card of verses. me, the one barely hanging on to that mustard seed.

The verses she had written out for me were Philippians 4:4-8:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Her and I discussed faith and growing after that, and how I was going away. Man. I'm going away. It's quite terrifying, if I may change the subject. As soon as I saw that flight confirmation in my email I had a mini panic attack.
i feel like just by knowing Joan, i have learned a lot. about being a faithful person, about keeping your heart and mind focused on where they need to be.
thanks Joan. i look forward to learning more.

(sorry if this seems a bit disjointed. i wrote it at two different times of the day.)