Hi, everyone.
Gosh, where to begin... Well, to be honest with you, before a year ago I wasn't really that religious or spiritual until I had my "experience". I was a choir boy as a shy, unassuming 12-year old, but I really didn't enjoy going to church - I found that I came to despise people that told you what to think, rather than HOW to think. I've always been considerate of other people, I don't smoke or take drugs, drink moderately on seldom occasions, so I didn't see why I continually had to hear about how my soul was going to be eternally tormented if I didn't pray in the name of Christ every night.
But then a year ago, I heard some quotes on a movie by William Blake, Christian mystic and poet. I found them deeply inspiring and lucid, and thought I had to get something by him. I finally located a collection of his poetry and prose and ideas, and kind of left it aside for a couple of days without thinking any more about it save a couple of superfluous glances. One day I came home from work and settled down to relax and just all of a sudden got this urge to read it properly, because deep in my heart I knew I was missing something.
I read the introduction of the book by a fellow poet, and initially it was about his early life. It then told of how Blake too became disillusioned with the church and its "hyprocritical Priestcraft". He was deeply religious, but despised institutional religions. I thought "That's strange", but then my eye fell upon a quote of his: "Because I Believe Christ appeals to the Man, not his Reason". Straight away after reading this, something happened. I percieved a great light, more powerful than any sunbeam or moonbeam, pierce into my whole being and fill me for about 5 minutes. It was like I was given a spirit from heaven. I felt absolutely ecstatic, like this was the moment that would change my life, and it has. I could finally read my Scriptures with new eyes and properly recognise Jesus' teachings about the Kingdom of God in Matthew, chapters 5 to 7. And also when his disciples asked him why he spoke in illustrations to the masses, he replied "Because to you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, to them it has not been given yet".
I'm a completely new person since that date, I experience moments of joy and I do lots of charity work because I've finally stopped thinking about myself, but others come before me. I know there is a God, the atheists just haven't recieved the gift of His heavenly light.
Has this happened to anyone else?
