Passion

I had the chance to take six college girls to Passion in Atlanta this year. For those of you who may not know what Passion is, it is a four day event held in Atlanta, at the Georgia Dome where 42,000+ college students come together. It is a conference that believes in the power and influence college students have to see the Lord’s renown spread not only across the country but across the world as well. I could talk about the amazing speakers they brought in from John Piper, Beth Moore, and Louie Giglio. I could share about the amazing times we were led in worship by the David Crowder Band, Kristian Stanfill, and Chris Tomlin. I could talk about the emotions that came from standing around so many other believers and what it felt like when the Georgia Dome shook from the cheers, cries, and songs of so many. But here is what I want to talk about, how great our God is. I was told when I went home it would be easy to tell everyone, “Passion was awesome. “It” was amazing.” But that would be wrong, what I should say is, “God is amazing.” The leaders were not there to promote the name of Passion, but to promote the name of Christ. In those four days were challenged to seek after the Lord with an unstoppable force. We were challenged to each learn, to know, and to feed ourselves with the word of the Lord. Francis Chan spoke about how we go to church, bible study, and other events to be fed. But we are no longer children, it is time for us to get into the word, to study it on our own, because there will be times when we are called to stand alone. And how else will we survive unless when know who Jesus is? This is where faith starts.

This year at Passion our eyes were opened to the evil and horror of human trafficking and slavery all across the world. We learned about a woman who was forced into sex trafficking in Greece and a man born into slavery, who worked in a rice mill in India. And for those few stories we heard about, we learned that 27 million other people lived every day of their life in slavery. The organizers of Passion set a goal for these college students to raise one million dollars for foundations whose purpose was to get people out of slavery and help them find restoration. At the end of those four days over three million dollars had been sacrificially given by these college students. It opened my eyes to see that we all need to do something. But not just something about slavery, but to do something in our own communities. To be a part of Saturday Serve, to educate ourselves on the issues facing our city, and to give. Where this starts, a passion to love and serve others comes from first knowing the Lord and studying his word. His heart is to see the lost come to know him, to see injustice fought, and for his people to live out what he has called us to. We have a lot of work to do; the point is not to live comfortably. Christine Cain, a speaker at Passion who runs a foundation of her own, spoke these words, “Since when has the point ever been to arrive at death safely?” So what are you and I doing to live life fearlessly? Are you and I everyday passionately reading the word of God and using the most powerful weapon at our disposal, prayer, for those in need? Will you do something now?