Encounter

Hillsong church was having their youth conference, Encounter, this weekend and powerhouse folks were invited (as in the 18-25yr olds). I initially was not going to attend. I had planned on going to the zoo thing that is not actually a zoo but a zoo type place where you can actually pet the kangaroos and such, but with all the work mess building up and me just having a crazy “I miss my people” moment at powerhouse on Wednesday I ended up signing up for it and planned on only going to the Saturday event (it was a Thursday-Saturday thing). Well I ended up not having to work on Friday, so that is when I met up the professional pathways lady. Later that day I felt like digging my eyeballs out with a non varnished, wooden spoon and I decided that I would go to encounter for the Friday night service, since they had a bus going there at 4pm.

Seeing as how I am writing this on Saturday, I can just say that it was a really good decision to get my butt out of the doom and gloom of what was…just a long week and into a place where I could just “encounter” God (Jesus/Holy Spirit). Now I can’t say that all the things I heard were the feel good, pick Sidni up stuff that I was hoping for…but it was the “life’s tough get a helmet” stuff that I needed. This encounter conference mixed with the book I have been reading (The Barbarian Way by Erwin Raphael Mcmanus) both just kept reinstating that sometimes you (as in I) just get to comfortable and we (as in I ) like to stay there, and even worse like to keep God there. But in reality God wasn’t made for us, God made us and I guess it is just something that is becoming more real to me now that a lot of comforts of home/church/work/school are no longer the same old comfort. I’m not saying that comforts are bad, just that, at some point you must…cut the umbilical cord. I don’t just mean not depending on your parents, but you know, maybe eat a coffee toffee frosty instead of a regular chocolate frosty. Just get out of your routine, try something different and live in your salvation. Because in these comforts we miss out on huge things happening, that we could have easily played some part in, or at the very least, experienced. These are new words for me too, and while they make sense, sometimes fear gets in the way of furthering and really, what is there to fear?