(a spontaneous testimony)
You asked why I love reading from the Old Testament about Elijah's encounter with the Lord on the mountain.
This reading relates to my first conversion, I was twenty-two at the time. It was very powerful, and because I knew nothing about God until then, I couldn't understand what happened. I experienced something that I couldn't describe or explain at all. And there was no one to share it with.
After some time, I "happened" to come across Elijah in the Bible and his meeting with God on Horeb (I don't even know why or how, I hadn't read the Bible until then). I immediately recalled my experience of God in the silence (or breeze), which I will never forget. How something like: "My life is not my own!" kept echoing in my mind. I wanted to run away, bury myself deep underground, hide anywhere. And at the same time, I had only one wish: "Just You!"
In that passage about Elijah's encounter with God, I found an explanation for what I experienced for the first time. And whenever I hear this reading, my memories come vividly to mind. Even after many years.
-m-
