Sunday, December 30, 2007

One of the most beautiful sounds in the world

So I'm in Edmonton, at the C4C Bi-Mon Sci-Fi Con. Hehehe, sorry, that reference always cracks me up. Actually its wintercon (Winter Conference). Anyways, picture this: it's Sunday night, you're in a room with 300-400 twenty-something year old university students from across western Canada. The worship band's leader at the front of the room says you can stay, or you're free to leave. What happens? The students stay. On their own will. And they sing songs that speak of how amazing Jesus is, who is God. The voices sing in unison. The band stops playing their instruments for one verse/chorus, and its just acapella, of about 300-400 people singing to God. It was great.

And then some of the most beautiful sights I see: whereas other 20-something year olds would be off in a bar, or doing crazy/possibly irresponsible things with their friends, I see in front of me, young men with their hands on each other's shoulders, praying for each other. I see varying numbers of groups, men and women, crying out to God, near tears with passion. I don't think what I saw and heard can be faked. I don't believe it is "organized religion" because the things I saw can't be organized. I sat in my chair and just observed my peers, my friends, my brothers and sisters. It's hard to describe but I just thought I'd attempt to share that.

And I guess that's it for 2007. I'll aim for more posts in 2008. Maybe.

3 comments:

Paulman said...

First of all, I can't believe you were blogging in the middle of Winter Conference (though, I must admit, I do think that's cool).

Secondly, I think I might have left that session right when he said worship was over, lol. I can't remember why - I think I had to do something, or make sure I went somewhere early. At any rate, I ended up next door in the bookstore. While hanging out with staff. Staff and interns are crazy/funny.

Thirdly, yah, one thing that struck me about the praying (at least with our younger year SFU guys) is that a lot of it is borne out of fellowship, which is awesome.

Anonymous said...

shame, tears, love, forgiveness, passion, surrender, then joy and peacefulness!
it was amazing!

out of passion and love, people just held each other tight and pray for each other. A rare scene nowadays..........

beautiful and touching...

Anonymous said...

it WAS beautiful. :)