moments

I know you all are dying to see how my Easter shopping went, so here it is:

I took that picture especially for you Mel. The shopping was actually really easy. I was at Target with Bethany and Cori (7th graders) and just decided to peruse the clothes section and found the skirt and shirt. It was money. I also was taking fashion advice from little Bethany, who wears sweats more than I do and hates dressing up more than anyone I know. Ironic.

Now to switch gears a little, Angie Wysocki wrote in her last blog "it's been kind of a heavy week." That statement was very true for me as well. So in somewhat non-tateblog style, I'm gonna be a little "heavy," in the words of Angie. And Marty McFly.

The past few days have had a lot of moments. By moments I mean little occurrences that nearly brought me to tears, made me all out cry or just made me thank God for life. Or maybe all of the above. And it's interesting that I noticed this in the same week that I read a chapter in Velvet Elvis about these sorts of moments. Moments that make you realize (to paraphrase) "there is something much greater than ourselves going on."

It started Friday (although the whole week was emotional really), the day we call Good Friday, which still doesn't make much sense to me or anyone. Anyway, that night we had a church service and reflected on the death of Jesus. I was a little choked up in the service. But it would not compare to what happened after the service.

Later that night I went to a movie with some boys who made me laugh harder than I had the whole week probably. But as we sat and watched the movie Reign Over Me about a completely crushed man who had lost his entire family, I cried harder than I had since I saw Freedom Writers. You remember.

My side-note question is, why do I cry more at Adam Sandler or inner-city kids than I do at the death of Christ or extremely troubled children in Africa? If anyone has an answer for that one, I'm real curious. Because I don't get it. Nonetheless, it was a moment.

Even Saturday night as I sat and watched some of the movie Cast Away at Mark's house, once again surrounded by a bunch of rowdy boys, I felt that if I let myself really watch the movie I was gonna start crying. So instead I tried to space out here and there and make sarcastic comments so as to spare myself from crying in front of the high school boys there.

But church this morning was like the culmination of it all. It was when I realized, something weird is going on in me this week. Then again, it was holy week, so maybe all this is what's supposed to happen.

We arrived at church at 7:30am, so I was obviously barely awake, not to mention a little furious that it was 30 degrees and snowing out on Easter. But we had to get there early to practice. As we stood on the stage singing actually some pretty decent songs, I noticed a mom of one of our youth group students walking around the room touching all of the chairs and praying for them as she did. Everytime I looked at her, I got a little choked up and studdered over my notes. How incredible that she would get to church that early on her own will to pray that people would experience the presence of God in that room. And not just some people, everyperson.

There was something much greater going on in that room.

During the service, as I sang and watched people worshipping God and rejoicing that Christ had risen, I was once again choked up. Especially during our last song, when we were just belting out these beautiful chords singing "He's alive! Alleluia Amen!" I could just see on people's faces how grateful they were for their savior. As they were dismissed and walking out of the service, we continued singing the song, and a few people stopped and either kept singing or just watched us sing with this huge smile on their face. I knew Jean Wysocki was tearing up next to me too, and I don't know how I kept myself from just losing it.

There was something much greater going on in that room. And much greater than I'd ever experienced in that room.

I can't force myself to have the moments. I watch the Passion of the Christ with all this expectation that I should be bawling, but I don't. It's like they only come when you're not expecting it. Like at a movie. Or at choir practice. Or while you're singing the same song you've sung a million times in the past two weeks.

But isn't that just like God to do things in a way that's unexpected?

Well those are my observations as of late. Just know that whenever I'm getting emotional I have to share, because I often feel like Jerry Seinfeld or Micah Thomas, who, when tears start coming out of their eyes they wonder what that wet salty substance is falling down their faces. I mean I'm not that bad, but back in the day I went three+ years of high school without shedding a single tear. My friends made fun of me for not having emotions, but that's a whole other story.

He is risen. That's all I have to say about that.

I'm gonna go ahead and switch gears again and talk about the rest of Easter Sunday. I got to tag along with the Wysockis to the Merritts house for easter dinner and--get this--and easter egg hunt.

But the best part about an easter egg hunt at the Merritts is that some of the eggs are filled with money, which is probably how they get their 20-something sons to participate too. So I made sure to search well.

That's a good action there, huh? And get this, I found the egg with the coveted $20 bill. In total I made $24, some candy and some hard-boiled eggs. Shoot, I'm going to the Merritts every year for Easter.

Not to mention those Merritt boys are pretty hilarious. And Gloria Merritt reminds me of Mary Poshak.

The egg hunt also reminded me of easter at the g-parent's house way back in the day. Those were some good times. But their backyard was pretty small so every year we pretty much knew where the eggs would be. But I loved those times.

I want you all to know I've become re-obsessed with Saved by the Bell. I'm taking Sophie through the journey of all the episodes starting from the beginning, and it's incredible. Man I really love that show.

It's probably bed time.