Woven Through It All
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1 ESV
Aside from packing, there is one thing about Encounter weekends I just don’t like—leaving. Each year, though I exhale when the weekend ends, getting in my car after saying goodbye is the hardest part. Why is that?
Because there is a beautiful and holy mystery woven through it all.
There is a holy mystery in the preparation. For months, the Encounter team prays, plans, and seeks the Lord together. But God is doing more than organizing a weekend; He is knitting hearts together, preparing us for the work He has already set in motion.
There is a holy mystery in the gathering. Women from all over the country arrive, and somehow, unity forms almost instantly. Strangers become sisters. Conversations go deep quickly. Worship rises with one voice. And when the Word of God is taught, the Spirit meets each heart personally through the same scriptures. It’s unexplainable, and that’s what makes it a holy mystery.
And there is even a holy mystery in the departure. If you’ve been to Encounter, you know the feeling—a deep longing for more. More time in the Word. More unhurried conversations. More worship. More laughter. More rest. We leave full, yet still hungry.
That hunger points to something deeper.
As sacred as these moments are, they are only a taste—a morsel. What we are really longing for is not an experience, but a Person. God Himself.
In Psalm 63, David expresses his heart with strong language, using phrases like “earnestly I seek You” and “my soul thirsts for You.” Pause for a moment and reflect on that. Can you feel David’s emotion? He wrote these words in the wilderness, not in a moment of abundance, comfort, or community. Yet his longing is unmistakable.
Why? Because he knew that God alone satisfies. David lived in a time when pagan worship was prolific, and he surely witnessed how idols never satisfied the soul. He refused to fall into idol worship. His heart was completely sold out to the One True God, Elohim: “O God, You are my God!” He declared it in song and in life. Nothing has changed since then. We will never be fully satisfied with what this world has to offer when our Creator alone is what we need. C.S. Lewis wrote of this reality in Mere Christianity: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Maybe that’s why leaving is so hard. Not because an enriching and soul-satisfying weekend ends, but because it awakens that deep-down thirst that doesn’t.
And this is the mystery: we are not only invited to experience God in moments like Encounter, but to be held by Him in every moment.
For Reflection:
As you reflect on Psalm 63, consider:
What has David come to know about God that stirs his heart for more?
What is David’s response to what he knows about God?
How does this passage stir your heart?
Father God, thank You for the reminder today that it is You alone who satisfies every deep longing of our hearts. Reveal Your majesty and glory to us as we seek You earnestly. Continually remind us that Your steadfast, unfailing love is better than life. And may our hearts erupt in songs of gratitude and praise! For Your glory and our good! AMEN!