Mi Encuentro

It has been three weeks since my Encuentro con Jesus (Encounter with God) weekend, and I'm still feeling the effects.

I guess I should go ahead and explain what all the hype is about. Oh yes, going on the Encuentro is a very big deal. And rightly so. Seriously. I've always wondered how they somehow managed to do what they did. People (like my parents) who went on the Encuentro came back changed. It's only three days long! Technically two and a half days. How..??
In all honesty, I didn't think they could do it. And I was right. They can't. God can. And He most certainly did. So here's a short testimony of what went on in me. (Though I'm convinced it was better when I did it in Spanish. Something is just lost in translation...) I could go into detail about how they did this... but I'm not allowed. They explained their reasoning like this: It's like getting someone a present and telling them what it is. It's still good, but it won't mean as much when they open it themselves. So, without further ado...

God has blessed me with a loving family. Something we learned over the weekend was that your relationships with people can affect your relationship with God. (Ah, that explains that bit in Matthew 5:22-24, "First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.") But not just in a bad way, in a good way too. I realized that, because I have such a good model of what a father should be in my daddy here on earth, it has helped me have a good relationship with my Father in Heaven.
But still, I didn't know that there were so many things you could hide in your heart. Throughout the weekend there was talk of rejection, lack of forgiveness, impurity, generational curses... I hadn't realized where Satan had been chaining me, or where he was even just trying to. I hadn't realized that you can hold rejection against yourself. Even though I had the love of my family and my friends, I still held something against myself. I was never good enough. And worse, if I failed, I would kick myself when I was down. Ask some of my friends, I was hard on myself. I might readily forgive someone else before I would forgive myself. And in a way, that was not only holding myself in too low of a position, but also too high of one.
Take a look at Psalm 139:1-18. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God doesn't make mistakes, and He made you. It says in Isaiah that He measures the heavens with the breadth of His hand, He can hold all of the waters on earth in His hand. And yet, imagine! I've been learning about cells in my AP Biology class. Do you have any idea how complex a single eukaryotic cell is? And it takes millions of them just to form a square inch on the first layer of your skin! It says in Luke that the hairs on your head are numbered. The God of the Universe, who can "weigh the mountains on scales," knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows when a sparrow falls. You are worth more than many sparrows. He knows you. He created you. And He loves you with an undying love.
All of this was being pumped into us during that weekend. That and so much more. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it was. (And those who wrote a letter, you made it that much more special for me.) I am so glad I had the chance to go. It was exactly what I needed. I will never forget it.

Soy libre.