For those of you who may be reading this for the first time or newer to reading my blog posts, first I want to say ciao (hello) and benvenuto (welcome)! I am so glad you are reading this. Last June, I started an inner healing, emotional health journey to connect to God, connect to myself, and connect to others. It has been such an incredible journey so far and I know I am not done yet. I never intended on still being in this program navigating through the weeks. There are nine weeks total or as I count them, introduction week plus 8 weeks. I figured I would have been finished by the fall, but here I am, in spring, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It has been a wild adventure that I have been taking to really focus on this journey. There have been a lot of different paths within this journey: some really crazy moments, some unconventional ways of breaking broken belief systems I held. Mistakes that I have learned from, some strongholds that have been broken, some strongholds that remain, forgiveness given after five years of working to this moment. A journey of forgiveness that I am afraid of embarking on, but slowly taking steps to release that hurt and pain. Some really hard conversations and moments where I had to look some people in the face and be 100% vulnerable with them shame and guard down. But also a lot of adventures, and new friendships.

I just finished  Week 4 and 5 which were combined and both on encounters: God encounters, future self encounters, past self encounters, among some others. For me, these three were the ones I needed the most. 

First, what is an encounter? An encounter is an experiencing of a person, place, or thing. Now how does one experience something? This can be an welcomed or uneasy anticipation of a thought, emotion, or object occurring through the senses or the mind. 

God encounters: Now these come to me at the CRAZIEST times, while blow drying my hair, in the middle of class, during church related activity, as I am about to fall asleep and/or have a test in the morning, while walking through an empty parking lot, God’s new favorite with me: while I am driving. Even right now, it’s 1:37am and I have an exam at 9:00, thankfully, it is via my computer at home. This has been something I have been working on since I heard a speaker at the women’s conference I attended over the summer, “Are you willing to be inconvenienced for me (God) or step outside your comfort zone”? That simple question has taken me on such a journey. I have sat on the curb in an empty parking lot as I wrote an ENTIRE blog post (check out my last one: What is Healing?). I have pulled over in my car multiple times to write down what God is speaking to me. I have got out from underneath my beloved weighted blanket and out of bed to walk around my room worshipping or writing down a simple phrase or something long. A God encounter is not confined to a church building. 

Another way a God encounters us is when we listen to that voice inside us. God IS talking to you, sometimes it sounds like our own imaginations or really out there and random. But as I am writing this, I want to challenge you to TEST your faith, test it out. Text that person, even if it’s late, pray over or for someone even if it is a stranger, if God gives you a word for someone, tell them, even if it is way out there. If He has you write something down or even buy something that is so far out, just trust that one day you will see the why. 

Let God take you into those painful moments. When painful memories or even just a memory that comes out of nowhere, take a moment and ask God, “What do you want me to see in this moment? When was the first time I felt this way? Why am I feeling this emotion or remembering this specific memory? God can go outside of time and space into these memories, bring us back to some painful moments, give us a new experience, and speak truth over us. Which then pulls us into meeting a need that was unmet in that moment. 

An example: I was attending a worship night at my church, and I was beginning to feel somewhat disconnected. I couldn’t connect to the song, and honestly was slightly annoyed at the song choices. I didn’t know the previous song and I didnt like this song, but it was during that song that God met me in a painful moment, and brought me back to a memory that wasn’t even on my mind. I remember being pulled right into that moment, as I closed my eyes, I could picture myself being right there, but this time I saw God in that memory, rewriting that memory and speaking over me, I could feel the love pouring over me. Yes, that moment still holds pain, there is some healing and forgiveness that is being worked on, and this moment was part of that healing process that has begun to take place. 

Let God meet you in the happy moments! In your quiet time, spend some time asking God what do you like about me? How do you see me? What’s your favorite thing about me? Remind me of a super happy time in my life. Where were you during this memory? God is not only a healing God, He is not only a God who meets us in our pain. He also meets us in our adventures, in the fun times. He is there every time you laughed, at family dinners, and with us always. 

For lengths sake, I will cut it here! Since this was two weeks combined, I will finish up the two other encounters and also the homework in the next post, stay tuned! 

Usually I end these with a little (or long) paragraph to get to know me in all my quirky weirdness. This time, I just wanted to use this space to pray over you all. 

Father God, I thank you for anyone who has taken the time to read this post, whether they have read my previous posts or this is their first time. I believe you have brought each and every one to this post for a reason, not to sound cocky as it’s all you who has written this post and has personally brought me through many encounters with you. I just ask that you would pour out an abundance over them, whatever they are in need of right now. The word abundance keeps coming to me, and I don’t know who that is for, but I feel like it is for someone. An abundance of blessings, an abundance of health, an abundance of hugs, an abundance of healing, an abundance of freedom, an abundance of faith. I ask that you would lead each and every person into a time with you, into an encounter in a way that speaks to the uniqueness of each person. May we come to know just a little bit more of you today. 

In your mighty name, we pray, and the people all say, AMEN! 

Well I will share this fun fact about me, I went to Dallas, TX for two weeks, knowing not one person, on a mission trip that I had found out about only 2 months earlier at a conference, when I was 14. While I was there, this was the first time I remember praying for my friend over a text. It was in that moment I realized that I loved praying over and for people. Writing has always been so much easier for me, and I remember being in the gymnasium after a long (and hot) day in the neighborhoods of Dallas, writing out this prayer and reading it over, thinking wow, God just spoke some really good things into my friends life. I realized then the power behind prayer, and how powerful our God is when we allow Him to speak through us to another person. So I leave you with this: Are you willing to be inconvenienced for God? Are you willing to be the vessel for God to speak through to others?

This my friends is one example of an encounter, this was originally 1.5 pages when I wrote the majority of this a few nights ago at 2am, the prayer part and the coming back to that moment that prayer was instilled into me was not thought of or planned! The journey with God, is not one of a straight path, its full of amazing stops and encounters along the way, embrace that nudge, I promise it is well worth it!