Part 2: A glimpse of an encounter…
- Soukeïna Rose
- Apr 16, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 21, 2020
I am safe now and where I am supposed to be.
My name is Soukeïna N’Diaye, but my family and friends call me Souky!
In this short writing, I share with you a glimpse of how it felt like to encounter Jesus Christ in a personal way. Why share this aspect of my life? Well, because this experience turns out to be the most meaningful event in my existence. It allows me to find my true self continuously, to own my story, and to live a life of purpose. I aspire to encourage others to find their identity, to embrace their story, and to live it boldly!
When I think of how this encounter made me feel, I like to picture this gigantic puzzle that you try to finish for weeks, months, or years even, but cannot because the last piece is missing. You look for it everywhere, in every room you have already been, under every object near the place where you were doing the puzzle but nothing. So, after a while, you no longer know where to look, you lose patience and are eventually on the verge of giving up. Then time goes by, and one day, you enter this room where you rarely go to, this old attic of the house where you played hide and seek when you were a child. And there it is… the puzzle piece you were desperately looking for was there patiently waiting to be found. So, you grab it with excitement and run into the room where the incomplete puzzle is still waiting, and you finally get to add the last piece that is needed to reveal the full beauty of the puzzle’s picture. It is that overwhelming yet peaceful moment when you cannot help but escape a sigh of accomplishment with great joy and relief and think this is what I was missing all along… what a masterpiece!
Now, although this is the way I like to imagine how I felt about meeting Jesus, this is only part of it. Indeed, our story has even more depth and ups and downs and turning points!
So, what if we imagine a rollercoaster ride now? Not necessarily the one everyone is afraid of, but not the one at the funfair that everybody loves to ride either. It would be that rollercoaster that scares you but seems familiar enough for you to be intrigued and even want to try it. So, after thinking for a moment, you take courage, and you get on the engine, you make sure that you are well seated and that the belt is tight around your waist, and you hang on to anything that might give you a sense of security. Then, after a while, you are slowly lifted and even begin to enjoy the ride. “Well, it is not so bad,” you start to think.
Before you realize it, you are at the top of the rollercoaster, the engine stops for a while, and you have that “uh-oh moment” … All the confidence you thought you had in yourself and the engine is gone in a few seconds, and the next thing you know, you are thrown towards the ground in a rapid and violent motion. You scream so loud that your throat hurts, you have trouble breathing and start crying, begging for help, getting angry and confused. You feel so weak, scared, and vulnerable because you have no control over what is happening… “When will it stop, I do not want to experience it anymore, is there anyone who cares about me and comes to help?” … And at the very moment that you feel like your world is crashing and that it is over, you can sense the engine slowing down and your heart starting to beat at a regular pace again; you can feel the gentle and reassuring breeze on your face. You can see one of the most magnificent landscapes you have ever seen before. As the mountain scenery unfolds before your watery eyes, you start to smile and realize that you would not have been able to see this landscape if you had not taken the risk of doing this roller coaster ride in the first place. But above all, there is this unexplainable peace that fills you and conquers all the fears and sufferings you have gone through, and you breathe this big sigh of joy and relief and think "it was so worth it, it is all I have ever needed, I am safe now and where I am supposed to be!”.
I know that these stories only paint the decor of how I felt meeting with Jesus, but the beauty of it is that even alone, this decor is still a masterpiece, because it is His. It deserved to be portrayed because sometimes we do not pay enough attention to the little things that happen in our life. But what if these little things were pointing towards a more significant person patiently waiting for you to meet Him?
Soukeïna Rose N’Diaye
Read part 3: Finding my identity and my purpose in His presence
Read part 1: Every story has a beginning
Read my other posts:
Subscribe to my mailing list to get a notification every time I post a new article!
Comments