So, for all of those that don't know already, I've become a devote christian. This weekend, I spent my friday and saturday at a christian retreat for this course I'm taking called alpha. I wanted to share my experience with you, it went a bit like this:

Over the past few weeks, I've been getting more and more negative. The stress was pilling on, from my mother, my girlfriend's mother, from school, from college and future plans, and from this co-op job. It all seemed to be stacking against me, and I was getting more and more irriate as the days went on.

This weekend, i think, has change that for my life. My entire life, I think.

The lesson for this retreat was on the holy spirit, and how God uses the holy spirit to empower us to do great things. Going in, I thought I already knew all this. I thought I had already experience the power of the holy spirit.

Turns out, I had no clue how powerful it could be.

after the second to last talk, we were asked to sit in our small groups and pray. And we did. I remember thinking I really need to pee as I was praying. And I really did. But I sat and I kept praying, seriously praying, keeping my focus. Then, we were asked if we wanted a group leader to pray for us, standing next to us, in a personal prayer, just for us. My group leader was my friend Mike Turner. He came to me and asked if I wanted him to pray for me about something. At first, I was standoffish, as I had something on my mind that I didn't want to share, but then I thought, I should really experience this, so I asked him to pray about something equally as important to me, but much less personal. My job and future.

he took a knee next to me, and (warning me beforehand) rested his hand on my shoulder. Then he went into a prayer. The thing is, the most powerful part of the prayer didn't mention my problem with the job. It was something that I hadn't told him that was also deeply concerning me.

We had talked that day about the fruits of the spirit, or the qualities you get when you accept the holy spirit into your heart. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfullness, happiness and self-control. It hadn't occured to me at the time, but the thing that was stressing me the most about this job was the way my mother didn't seem to understand. What he said was "Lord, help him(me) to get along with his mom. Grant him peace to help him with that."

I realized, then and there, god was speaking through Mike. I hadn't told him directly that I was incredibly stressed out about this conflict between my mom and me. And yet, there it was. The solution to my problem, staring me in the face. I lacked the holy spirit, right up till then. And I cried from the sheer power of the spirit filling me back up, giving me strength again. And I spun in wonderment for what seemed like forever.

Really, it was 20 minuets. At the end of which I discovered I still had to pee.

But that is the power of the holy spirit. I'd forgotten almost all of the day, except that one moment, and the moments after. It was so amazing.

I highly recommend a few doses of the Holy Spirit every couple months or so. To everyone. Regardless of race, color, sex. Regardless of what happened in your past. Just come to the spirit. Experience this joy, this love. Open your hearts and minds to this amazing feeling I experienced today. You'll find it makes life a lot more livable, and meaningful.