There are defining moments in your life. These are moments that will forever be etched into your mind. Moments like becoming an auntie for the first time. Deciding where to go to college. Choosing to have a relationship with our Savior. These defining moments can be for better or worse. A defining moment is remembering exactly where you were and what you were doing when something dramatically changed.
My senior year of high school I was sitting in the back of my bible class at Hesperia Christian School during the last quarter of the year. I had taken bible class every year for the past 6 years. I took spiritual leadership, philosophy, and I attended weekly chapel. I sat in our bible apologetics class. In the quarters prior I had learned theology and ethics. I knew so much about the bible and what it contained. Once a week we had a speaker come in and explain their faith to our class. Here we were in our last week of speakers, we had already listened to the Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Hindu, and Jew. I listened to a man who graduated from the very school I was currently at. I listened to him try to explain why he had become an atheist. He had the same educational experience that I had. We had even shared most of the same teachers! I sat there listening to my class debate with him. I loved my small school and I absolutely loved my class of 40. We definitely were not your average Christian school class type. My class was it’s own. I was sitting in a room full of Hesperia Christian’s biggest troublemakers. I was next to most of the guys who got suspended the year prior for alcohol consumption. We were the back-talkers, the class who could talk our way out of most things, the class who didn’t care about school spirit. We were the jocks. Every single one of our classmates played a sport. As I sat listening, none of that mattered. Our spirit week scores were long forgotten. I sat in room 83 in the back right listening to these people I had spent the last 6 years with. I listened to them defend their faith. These were the people who you would have easily discredited. We did not have the class full of perfect kids. I sat there completely proud of my class. All those years we had paid attention. At our cores we knew what we believed. We had all made mistakes, but we all knew whom we served. I encountered God that very moment. I sat in the back silent, encountering God and knowing wholeheartedly that I was right. I had the right relationship. I knew that my God was so very real and personal. I was listening to an atheist try to tell me I was wrong, that God was not real. And that was when He really showed me that He was.
One encounter with God was all it took. I had the same educational opportunities as every other kid who graduated from Hesperia Christian. The difference between the man standing at the front of the classroom telling us that God isn’t real was I had encountered God. I will never forget thinking in that moment that regardless of what happened from that day forward… I would know God is real. I would know God is such a personal Creator.
I never felt called to missions. I always have loved hearing stories about encounters people experience while ministering in different countries. My parents supported missionaries and we hung their pictures on our refrigerator. I have watched people leave on mission trips my whole life. I just never thought it would be me. Honestly I still get to hear about encounters almost every month because one of my roommates is a pastor who travels all over Europe and South America investing into young peoples lives. Now I am ecstatic to be able to Encounter God again and again with people who need it more than just a building that they call church.
