Earlier this week, we rang in the New Year with 65,000 college students. It was probably the most legit New Year’s Party I’ve been to, mainly because a) I don’t usually party and b) I usually go to bed around 9. But, as you can see here, I think it was probably worth staying up and then not being able to get back to the hotel room because of what I’m calling the Great 2020 Elevator Debacle (a story for another time).
Now, the occasion for this particular party was the annual Passion Conference in Atlanta. If you’re not familiar, and even if you are, the Passion Conferences are semi yearly gatherings that unite 18-25 year old students for spiritual awakening. If you’re familiar with American religious history, you know this puts the events firmly in the tradition of Second Great Awakening camp meetings. It’s not as bad as this guy thinks, but there are some criticisms to be made.
As you might guess, I have a somewhat complicated relationship with Passion (this sentence also works if the P is lowercase). I too am passionate about seeing spiritual awakening in students, particular in the 18-25 year old range. But, knowing my American religious history, I want more Edwards’ Religious Affections in the mix, and less of Finney’s anxious bench. I think Passion can be more of a catalyst for the former, and that’s why we ended up there last week with a group of students this past week.
In my own process of reflection, I thought it might be helpful to get back in the writing game and share some posts on my own history with Passion, as well as what this past conference was all about. I experienced the full range of emotions over the three days we were gone. I think in the process of making sense of it myself, it might prove helpful to you.
The place to start is with the book I was handed as I left the conference on Wednesday night. I already had it, because I read it when I was a freshman in college. But, the author had spoken earlier in the morning, and the book itself was a sermon preached at Passion 2000. I didn’t know that when I read it, nor that I would watch one of the illustrations come to life shortly after I originally read it.
To explain why, how the book shaped the trajectory of my life, I should give a bit of a backstory. At the end of my freshman year of college, I was spending some time at my then girlfriend’s house before I took a road trip back to Tennessee. After I graduated high school, I had spent a gap year writing and recording music in my home studio. Then, I had gone to a year long Bible institute with my best friend, which was where I had met the girl.
During that year, which I thought was really just another gap year before going to Nashville to get a degree in recording engineering, God got my attention in a powerful way. We were all in a kind of Bible boot camp where we were sitting in class 20 hours a week learning about the Bible and theology. Outside of class, we had ministry opportunities, and were encouraged to develop a personal quiet time. It was in those quiet times, and the many afternoons I spent reading the Bible that I felt the distinct call of God to a life of not just serious Christian living, but ministry as well.
Besides the Bible, I read the book I was handed just the other night. I had never heard of the author then, but he was kind of a big deal. In the book, he tells a story about a couple who lived their whole life working and then just retired to Punta Gorda, Florida to collect seashells by the seashore. He was making a plea with readers to not buy into the American dream and to actually live with a purpose. He wanted his readers to grow in their daily walk with Jesus by glorifying God in all that they do. Ultimately, He wanted readers to make their life count for eternity.
It definitely helped get my attention, and while I figured I could still make music on the side, I realized this was my true calling. So, I had decided to give up my full-ride scholarship for another year of Bible school and then work towards finishing my degree and going to seminary to get fully trained to teach the Bible in whatever capacity God would have me.
7 years later, I had graduated from Dallas Seminary, gotten married (to a different girl who I met at the same Bible institute) and moved here to Orlando. I started teaching at ICS, originally anatomy and biology, but then was able to move to my passion of teaching Bible. I began working with college students at UCF shortly after, and now I continue to do that alongside being the Director of Student Community at our church, NewCity Orlando.
But, 15 years ago, I didn’t know that would be the path for me. I had decided to take a step of faith, and now that meant going to a school in New York with no money for tuition, and being separated from my girlfriend who was going to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago (she would break up with me anyway in the spring). In my heart, I knew I was making the right choice, but I also could’ve used a sign from God that I was following the right path.
Which is what I got.
Part of the reason I was at my girlfriend’s house longer than anticipated was because Hurricane Charley was coming and it wasn’t safe to leave. And my girlfriend lived in Venice, which is about 30 minutes north of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, where the eye made landfall. She lived in a house that was built before Andrew and wasn’t up to code to withstand a Category 4 hurricane. Once we realized the storm was coming (it made a last minute right turn in the gulf), I couldn’t leave so I just had to trust that God would protect us.
Which he did.
There was little damage because we caught the weak side northwest of the eye. But, when we got out a drove a little south, I couldn’t help but think about that couple who had retired to Punta Gorda, as it was obvious their beach home was no more. Now it was no longer just theoretical that I could spend my entire life working toward something that could be wiped out in an instant.
I knew then and there that I didn’t want to pursue something so transient. Nor did I want to spend my life climbing a ladder only to discover at the top it was leaning against the wrong wall. I knew that just like the author in that book had encouraged me, I wanted to make my life count for eternity and not squander it on trivial matters.
The book, as you might guess by now, was Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. I read it as a freshman and I hope the high school seniors we just took will read it and take it to heart (one of them already has). I’m also glad John Piper keeps agreeing to come to Passion even though there are things he probably disagrees with more strongly than I do. To get to that though will take another post, and probably a story about my own direct experience of Passion back in 2007. Come back soon and I’ll fill you in!