Real encounters

Because of Jenn's request, I have decided to update my blog.

"Real" Encounters

I have been out of LA and back in Cupertino for nearly 2 months. I enjoy aspects of being in Cupertino as well as being in LA. For one thing, I am significantly less busy back at home. My schedule at the beginning of summer was

7:45am Wake up/Get Ready
8:30-12:30 SAT Teaching
12:30-12am Nothing

After a while, the free time bored me. I couldn't possibly pray for 10 hours straight to be realistic. I gradually decided to pick up running as well as read some books. On a side note, I like CS Lewis as an apologetics writer. He's very straightforward in his writing style and produces solid examples to help visualize and portray what he's arguing. Also, I am tutoring Chemistry on the side and running at night with one of my good friends. Needless to say, I've gotten pretty active. However, I do really miss my Passion Church friends. I miss the times I can go up to someone and worship/jam the night away. I miss the times when we would pray for hours on end, meeting God face to face. I realize that I miss the "real" encounters that I had with God.

Granted, I do have much daily conversation with my Daddy whether it is during my drives around Cupertino or when I have some good alone time at Peet's Coffee. For the most part, my spiritual life is kind of stagnant. I currently attend GrX with my siblings on Sunday. I do not mean to bash GrX because I do believe God's work is being done in that church. However, I leave every Sunday with much dissatisfaction. We have worship and we hear a sermon every week. I do like that they incorporate a 5 minute prayer time during the service, but I feel like I'm watching a show every time I am there. I learn a good moral and listen to some good music. Is the church supposed to be like this? What worries me is that the general American Christian population expects that this is what spirituality/Christianity/church is all about. Man, I miss meeting God in real moments. It strikes me that when I read in the Bible of people encountering Jesus or God how much people's lives change.

Moses's encounter with God at the burning bush, forever changed him from a simple man to a man that led a nation to freedom
Paul on his road to Damascus encounters Jesus/God and has his life change forever
Mary upon meeting Jesus has her life changed forever

These encounters are real. If I learned anything, it is that the God of today is the same as He is yesterday. I believe in a God that still has encounters with people today. I don't believe real encounters with Him are pertinent only to the Old Testament or to the times when Jesus still lived. With that in mind, I don't get why people don't have the mindset of wanting to encounter Him at church. Instead, we settle for less than what God wants to pour out by having programs and services that don't really do much, bluntly said. I miss the times when we would gather and pray with the expectation that we were going to encounter the real livng God. We would not stop praying until something happened. It was in those moments though that God would show up and amaze and transform us in many powerful ways. I wonder if my busy-ness and my priorities in my own life also prevent me from having those real encounters with God. My spiritual life feels dry, I need more of you Jesus.