Encountering Jesus (An Update to 'Relighting The Flame')

Before I begin, yes yes, I realise I have - once again - become sidelined in the world of the blogosphere, taking ages to actually take the time to update my little patch of electronic land. Truth be told, between commitments and high workloads associated with University, and doing what I can to sustain myself in all areas of life, there really isn't all that much I could write.

Until now...for I have something really cool to share with you all, and I hope that inspires.

A couple of posts ago I wrote about an attempt to Relight the Flame, an expose on an admission that I had known all to well. It was a post that outlined a decision that I made four years ago (at the time of writing this post), which spiralled me downward into a cycle of depression, a repercussion of which I am still dealing with even now. But the real plus side to all of that was the decision to scrap all traces of The Sims from my computer, and furthermore, to not play the game ever again! And I can proudly say that I have well and truly kept to my word; The Sims is still off this computer, and I haven't played it since, be it in my home (even when noone else is around - now that's an achievement!) or at somebody elses, the latter of which I have never done and have no intention of doing. And as a bonus, my depressive swings occur fewer times than what they used to, and I look forward to the day when I know that I have been freed from it in its entirety.

I write this post to share with you all something cool that happened at tonight's service at Spreydon. It wasn't about the music; it wasn't about the lighting; it wasn't about the message (but it did make me think long and hard); but instead it was all about one thing: an all-powerful feeling of release, an almost complete forgetfulness of all the worries that I have. And such power could only come from an encounter with Jesus. And even more remarkably, I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I ever had this feeling: I didn't want the Church service to end!

I didn't want the Church service to end! Was I really feeling alright?

For the first time in a bloody long time, I felt carefree. I felt released. I felt energised. I didn't feel ecclesiastically lethargic, nor did I feel cynical, as I admit I had been toward the Church for quite a while. Instead, I felt released from all of that, and just let myself out! I got right into the service tonight, and it felt nothing short of awesome! For the first time for as long as I can remember, I felt fired up about Jesus, about His Kingdom and His Church, about going to and attending services. Hell, I even felt fired up and energised about singing in Church - a phenomenon almost unheard of among males. But I confess - I felt all of that. And man it felt gooooood!

I just wanted to share all that with you. I hope that my encounter with Jesus is something that sows inspiration into you, and I hope that you too encounter Him in ways unimaginable.
A-Men!