Passion
ˈpaSHən/
noun
- strong and barely controllable emotion
- the suffering and death of Jesus
It all started 20 years ago when a man had an idea. Well-known preacher, speaker, and Jesus lover Louie Giglio and his wife Shelley desired to spread God's great glory and love to the younger generation. With lots of prayers, support, and trust in the Lord's perfect timing, the first Passion Conference was celebrated in January of 1997 in Austin, Texas with 2,000 university students attending. This past 2017 Conference was hosted in Atlanta, Georgia in the Georgia Dome with an estimated 55,000 attendees.
Passion, as it is executed today, is a three-day conference for 18-25-year-olds that hosts multiple well-known religious speakers and praise and worship leaders and includes "community groups" which consist of roughly eight randomly placed students that meet in the mornings and nights to discuss the Conference and life in general. This year influential speakers such as Christine Caine, Beth Moore, and Francis Chan shook the stage along with bands such as Hillsong United and David Crowder. This was my second time attending and this year I had the pleasure of going alongside my sister. We were both anticipating the event, however, I was developing what I would later find out to be a bad sinus infection and my mood was dampening by the hour. Regardless, I was still looking forward to attending mainly because I had not felt like myself lately. I was waiting for that huge "AHA!" moment with every speaker or a "that's what I'm missing!" with every song, but for those who walk with the Lord know, he does not work like that.
During the Conference, I realized that both Passion and I were the same age, but that we had one major difference (other than the fact that I am a human being and The Passion Conference is an event). This Conference at 20 years of age had an arena full of worship leaders, students, and speakers using their powerful voices to glorify the Lord loud enough to fill up the grandness of the Georgia Dome. I, however, was a sick college student who due to a LOT of coughing and worrying had difficulty speaking, much less singing (for those who know me, it pains me not to belt my lungs out on a daily basis) so instead I had to attempt to enjoy the conference in silence.
So, I listened.
There is nothing quite as beautiful as hearing 55,000 college students along with hundreds of adult volunteers singing praises to the Lord of all creation. As I listened, watched, and observed, I felt warmness spread over me, and a quiet nudge cautioned, “It is not about you today."
During the Conference I got the chance to watch my not-so-baby sister stand up, tears pouring down her face, fully surrender her life to Christ. I was reunited with a friend I didn't know I knew from kindergarten (with which I had shared many a play date) who had moved away at age 4. After 16 years and out of 55,000 people, we randomly ended up in the same community group. I listened to a woman by the name of Katherine Wolf talk about how at 26 years old she suffered a massive brain stem stroke that confined her to a wheelchair and paralyzed half of her face, all the while overflowing to the brim with joy and trust in the Lord. Then the same quiet nudge poked me again. It wasn't about me. It was about Him.
My 2017 started out horribly. On my way home from Passion not five minutes into my trip I got in an accident that crushed the passenger side front bumper of my car. My sinus infection got worse, and I had to start antibiotics. However being able to watch lives get saved, thousands of children get sponsored through Compassion International, awareness spread to stop modern-day slavery through the End It Movement, and my sister worship Christ, was everything I needed to remind me that God is still working in my life and the lives of so, so many others.
“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”
1 Kings 19:11-12
