When I was a sophomore in college, I went to an event I honestly knew nothing about. A bunch of friends from my home church were heading to Passion Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and I did not want to be the only person to miss out on the experience.
There was a great lineup of Christian preachers, speakers and bands that year. If there was ever a time I would go, I figured that should be it. We had just rung in the New Year of 2010 the day before, and I was completely exhausted. The nine-hour trip down was fun and full of anticipation, but I was not ready for what God wanted to do to me during those few short days.
As we arrived at the basketball arena full of ridiculous college students and young adults, I just wanted it to start.
It was PACKED. Lights were strobing. Fog was blowing. Stupid chants resounded like “we love Jesus, yes we do. We love Jesus, how 'bout you?”
I’m embarrassed just typing it out. I thought to myself, “Yeah, you just paid $200 to come to a Christian conference. You must love Jesus.” It was like high school youth group on steroids, with 20,000 members added of course. But when it started, I fell in love. First with the music, then the speakers, and most importantly, Jesus. For the first time in my life, even growing up as a Christian, I was in love with Jesus.
I had been to tons of conferences before, growing up in a Christian church that went to many of them. I had experienced the highs and lows associated with church camp and Dare 2 Share events, but there was something different about this. This wasn’t just a mountaintop experience for me. It was the moment when, suddenly, all the things I had ever learned about God made sense. All the pieces fit together and something came alive in me. I was able to truly experience what that year’s theme was all about. Awakening.
Jesus had woken me up. Literally. I remember friends of mine who could not keep their eyes open during many of the main sessions and I just could not get enough. Don’t get me wrong, after a couple nights of very little sleep and staying up talking about all that God had spoken to us that day, I couldn’t wait to get some good sleep. But I was all in on this.
But Jesus had actually woken me up in a spiritual sense as well. The stupid part is, I had actually grown up hearing lots of the things they were saying. The Bible was not new to me. The ideas of God, salvation, repentance, joy and freedom were all things I was very familiar with. I honestly just think I had never seen my relationship with Jesus as something that could be fully satisfying. Suddenly, I did.
I felt like God had revealed to me the fact that my whole life was to be centered around the teachings and work of His Son, Jesus. That everywhere I went, I was to proclaim His name and make Him famous. I realized my purpose on earth was not to please myself, store up earthly treasures and follow the Christian rules.
I suddenly did not feel as though God was angry with me. He did not want to punish me for the things I had done wrong and would probably do wrong the next day. He had already punished Jesus so that I would not have to receive that wrath. Talk about a weight off your shoulders!
The second great thing I got to see was the whole group of friends I was with worshiping God like no one else was in the room. The people on the stage seemed to do so as well.
Sometimes it was downright nasty. I’d never seen so much snot and so many tears. And that was just from me! But I was not alone. The sinfulness of our hearts seemed completely revealed to us and God’s love somehow seemed even stronger. It just broke us all apart in the best way possible. We knew we were fully known, yet fully loved and accepted by Jesus.
Even better. Everyone else left the conference and felt almost exactly the way I did. It’s like God had actually changed everyone I was with. To this day, almost seven years later, I can see that to be true.
I believe a large part of that was attributed to the way the speakers spoke about our generation. They didn’t call us lazy. They didn’t give us a few steps to a happier life. They told us that we had potential, because the Spirit of God actually wanted to change the world around us, and use us to do it!
When you’re told that you have purpose, your life changes. It’s that simple. Every one of us walked out those doors ready to change the world.
It wasn’t brainwashing. It wasn’t religious propaganda. It was God opening our eyes to see how beautiful He truly is.
I then attended Passion conference three more times, and every event was great. I have never been tempted to say one bad thing about the Passion movement. In fact, I get extremely defensive when I’ve heard people try to because it changed my life. Since then, it has grown in number every year and become a movement of college students and young adults who are living for something greater than themselves. They are living to proclaim that eternal life, love and forgiveness are only found in Jesus Christ. That’s the only thing that will change the world.
I will most likely never be able to thank the men and women who God used to change my life at Passion 2010 in person, but I’d love nothing more than to let them know how grateful I am. And I love knowing I’m not alone.
Maybe some day God will use you and me to do the same for someone else!
