The title of today's post comes from two things. Passion is a play on words. First, it refers to the literal word that shows someones zeal or excitement for a certain subject. Secondly, it refers to the Passion Conference that happens every year since 1997. The "Happy Man" comes from a post my brother Jesse did a few years ago about two happy men: John Piper and Ron Paul.
So I am going to tell you a little about (1) my first (and likely last) Passion conference in Atlanta, GA at the Dome, and (2) John Piper.
On Monday this week, my mom, dad, 4 sisters, and one sister's boyfriend drove down to GA to attend the conference. We had been blessed with free tickets and free hotel rooms at the tallest hotel in Atlanta, the Westin. We were with the Desiring God group, so we got to hear more from Mr. Piper than the rest of the conference. He was the best part of the conference, really the main reason we went! Ha!
The conference was held in the Georgia Dome with over 55,000 people attending! It was pretty amazing to be with so many people, listening to the gospel preached and praises sung to God. The music was way too loud but a lot of people really like that. We listened to Christine Caine, John Piper, Louie Giglio, the Passion Band, David Crowder and others.
Well, to get to the passion of Mr. Piper, I will start with our dinner the first night. We had dinner at the hotel with the Desiring God (DG) people, and Mr. Piper stayed for a little while. He told about DG and Passion. In his passion for the worship songs, he started singing "How Great is Our God." The next day, he spoke about the "Ultimate Essence of Evil" which is basically loving anything more than God. I really loved the message and was struck by the truth of how great a sin it is to love something more than God. Finally, After that, we went back to the hotel, and we DG people listened to John Piper and some other DG workers speak. One thing that particularly struck me about Mr. Piper was his grace. Many people wanted their picture taken with him, and I'm sure that could become very tiring, but he continued to wear his bright smile and take pictures with dozens of people.
So that's a glimpse of the Passion Conference and my appreciation for John Piper. Now, before I go, I must say that, although the loud music wasn't my favorite, there was something I really enjoyed: When the instrumentation stopped and just the crowd of people sang. Ahh! The roar of voices singing in unison to the Creator who deserves all praise was pretty awesome.
So that's a glimpse of the Passion Conference and my appreciation for John Piper. Now, before I go, I must say that, although the loud music wasn't my favorite, there was something I really enjoyed: When the instrumentation stopped and just the crowd of people sang. Ahh! The roar of voices singing in unison to the Creator who deserves all praise was pretty awesome.
On cloud 9, literally. We were on the 58th floor and we were in the clouds.
The Dome full of people.
Louie Giglio.
David Crowder.
Night in the city from our window in the hotel.
Morning in the city from our window.
The crowds walking to the Dome.
John Piper.
The X on my hand is the sign for the End It movement to end human trafficking. Everyone at the conference was supposed to put the X on their hand and we were photographed.
Our hotel.
The view form the top of the hotel.
God bless you and have an extraordinary day!
Elisabeth
You say we were on cloud nine, but I say we were on cloud 58!
ReplyDeleteVery true, Lydia.
DeleteThis sounds so amazing! Thanks for sharing. =)
ReplyDeleteYes, even though it wouldn't have been my choice, I somewhat miss some aspects of the conference.
DeleteI appreciate all you thoughts about the conference and the happy man. John Piper was such a blessing in every way and he looked pretty good even though he refused to wear any makeup! Ha ha!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad he did not wear the make-up. Oh, my goodness, people these days.
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