Passion07: Days 3-1 (In a Nutshell)

Okay, so I intended to post one entry per day of Passion, but I didn't. Let me give you just a few highlights:

Day 3: All 24- or 25,000 of us gathered outside in downtown Atlanta at around 11:00 p.m. in silence. We were instructed to say NOTHING. The folks at Passion surprised us just like they said they would. After everyone was gathered with his candle, we lit our candles, and music started. Imagine a huge crowd of college students assembled in one place lifting up the name of Jesus for all of Atlanta to hear! It was incredible, and needless to say, God's presence was unmistakable. After the late show was over, Atlanta kindly block off the streets for us to return to our hotels as quickly and safely as possible. I thought of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his supporters marching for freedom when we were all filling the roads and sidewalks, singing and shouting and waving at those who honked their horns in agreement. Wow! What a night!

Day 2: This day went much smoother than Day 1 because we had a better idea of what we were doing and where we were going. It was the first day of the breakout sessions. I chose to go to David Crowder's Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die session (named from his book). It was great as I expected. We had a brief "hoedown" in which we sung "I Saw the Light" and a verse or two from "I'll Fly Away." The rest of time, Crowder and the band talked about the book--sort of. Crowder gave his story of what led up to the writing of the book, which had me at the least grinning most of the time. At the end, he answered questions from the audience. This breakout session may have been the final seal on the David Crowder*Band making my No. 1 list. Also, just to mention, Francis Chan spoke on Day 2, and it was amazing! God definitely anointed him to speak to us.

Day 1: I've saved this day for last because it holds the best highlight regardng me. I went to Passion with pride. I was stale, spiritually cold. I had let pride creep up from the depths of my naturally deprave heart without my even realizing it. I did, however, detect something was wrong either the first night or the morning of Day 2. Great things were happening around me, and I was numb. I couldn't feel anything! I wasn't moved by God's presence in the Philips Arena, I was distracted during prayer, and my attitude toward Passion as a whole was corrupt. What is wrong with me? This should feel like heaven. God revealed to me that I was proud and needed to humble myself. Then He continued to help me work it out, and I'm not sure when (definitely by Day 4), but eventually Passion did seem like a glimpse of heaven, and it has sparked a change in my life.

God is using my class Discipleship and Evangelism: Leading in Spiritual Formation to grow this spark into a flame for sanctification (the process of changing from a deprave sinner to a person like Christ). He has to continually humble me, and His preferred way of doing so right now seems to be via this class.

This has been the 2007 Passion conference in a nutshell. Plenty of personal experiences and amazing large group experiences I have left out, but simply too much to tell exists.