Build Your ARK

Hello Friends,

Happy Labor Day. Hope all is well. Todays quote comes from a movie Evan Almighty.

"Build one ARK a day." or "Change the world with one ARK a day."

What is this ARK? In the movie, Evan is compelled by "God" to build an ark. This is not a historical story so building an ark in the present day was obviously seen as being an insane idea.

Evan is running for office and has become very selfish focusing all his energy on winning the campaign. As a result he spends less time with his family, canceling a camping trip with his sons. He does whatever it takes to win, without any concern for others feelings.

Evan prays to God for help with winning the campaign. You have to be careful what you ask God for because in due time, he always answers. God appears to Evan and tells him to build an ark. Evan tries to dodge the situation but all of a sudden two of each animal start to follow him whenever he goes. He starts growing facial hair like the biblical Noah. It is impossible to continue his campaign under these circumstances.

Evan now has no choice but to build the ark. Everyone comes around to make fun of him. No one thinks that it will rain. They call him a fool. He's lost support for his campaign.

In all of this he gets to spend more time with his family while they build the ark. His mindset begins to change from being selfish to one giving. Finally it starts to rain, but quickly stops and the ridicule from his neighbors and the media grows. As it turns out, the dam above the city was faulty and breaks open. The city was flooded but because Evan showed a little faith, he was able to save his family, the animals and the people that got on the boat.

At the end of the movie, Evan and God are talking and Evan is still a little confused as to the lesson he was supposed to learn. God tells him that in order to change the world all you have to do is build one Act of Random Kindness. As you can see this is the ARK that God wanted Evan to build.

If we subscribe to this belief, we can do a lot of good. It's not hard to do this. A simple hello to a stranger. A compliment to a friend. A quarter to homeless person. Random kindness is contagious. A random act is unpredictable, so when someone receives kindness from someone unexpectantly, it is so much more powerful. The tendency is for that person to pass along that random act of kindness as well. Remember as we talked about before, when you give that person feels good and so do you as the giver.

So remember... One ARK a day makes the world a better place.

Thanks for listening.