PASSION 2011

So for the past several days I was in Atlanta with Carol, Ellen, Courtney, and Courtney's sister (Bri) for Passion 2011.  For those of you who don't know, Passion is a four day Christian conference (January 1-4) that around 22,000 college students attend.  Famous speakers like Beth Moore, Francis Chan, and John Piper were there, as well as famous singers such as Chris Tomlin, Lecrae, Tenth Avenue North, and Matt Redman.  I went last year too, and even still God blew my mind this year again.

I am on a Jesus high.  That's the only way to describe it.  We tend to get so wrapped up in the world, thinking that temporary things like clothes or food or friendship or marriage will ultimately satisfy us.  And when we're left still feeling empty we're confused.  That's because only Jesus has a 100% guaranteed satisfaction.  For the past six months, I think I lost sight of that.  I was so set on having lots of friends, yearning for a boyfriend, getting good grades, and working a lot of hours so that I could have money to waste.  I was putting all of those things before my relationship with Christ.  Satan completely fooled me by making me believe that if I just have one more "thing," I will feel content.  My sin was literally controlling my behavior every day.  But now, Passion 2011 reminded me that only a relationship with Christ can fill each and every void.  And if I have Jesus, nothing else matters.

Currently, all I want to do is have quiet times and memorize Scripture and be in constant prayer.  I just want to be with God.  Always.  And it is such a great feeling.  Since I'm alone in my apartment until Sunday, I started memorizing a Psalm.

The thing though is that, while yes I am on this amazing Jesus high, I know that it stems from the "Passion high."  Given a few weeks or months of living in this world, the struggle of resisting sin and finding the time to read Scripture mid-semester will become more difficult.  And the more I give in to those feelings of "oh I'm too tired/busy/stressed/sick to have God-time," the more the world will infect me.  I look at it as Jesus gives us this amazing vitamin c that produces antibodies inside of us.  But if we aren't taking in our vitamin c, the antibodies will begin to dwindle.  And then, if we begin to give in to the things of this world, they will infect us like a bacteria.  And we won't have enough antibodies to fight it off, so the bacteria will replicate inside of us.

In non-bio terms (hahaha), without a daily dose of Jesus, we will become infected by the world quicker than we'd like to admit.  At Passion 2011, Beth Moore referred to Luke 2:18-19 in one of her talks.  In this passage, after Jesus was born everyone was stunned by the amazement of it all, but Mary "pondered it in her heart."  She thought it through.  That's what we all need:  the ability to think through the obvious.  Beth Moore said that yes, Passion 2011 is amazing, but amazing won't change our lives.  We must think through the amazing.

That's why I've started memorizing Scripture.  I need to give myself stricter Jesus "homework."  I can't skip a bunch of days of quiet times.  I need to continue pressing through and spending time with the Lord daily.  Because when this high that I'm feeling fades, I'll need the antibodies to fight the bacteria of this world.