January 2nd-4th of 2019 was by far one of the most powerful weekends I have ever experienced. That was the weekend I finally got to go to Passion. Passion is a 3 day conference for 18-25 year olds. The conference is put on by Louie Giglio and his church, Passion City Church, in Atlanta, GA.
From its start in 1995 Passion has been rooted in the confession of Isaiah 26:8 – “Yes Lord, walking in the way of Your truth we wait eagerly for You, for Your name and Your renown are the desire of our hearts” – existing to glorify God by uniting students in worship, prayer and justice for spiritual awakening in this generation.
One of the most impactful and stirring aspects of the movement has been the sea of voices uniting together to lift up the name of Jesus. Transcending the conferences, songs from Passion have become some of the most recognizable and unforgettable worship anthems of this generation.
Every year at Passion Conference, the band sings songs from their upcoming album live during all 3 days. Knowing this, I was super excited to hear the new songs.
At the end of the second session on day 2 I realized there was a song we kept singing that I really connected with. I am a huge music person anyway, but it was one of those songs where you listen to it and you’re just like yes! this! is! my! life! anthem! Every time we sang it I was remembering the words more and more and I could not get it out of my head.
The song is called Follow You Anywhere. (10/10 recommend giving it a listen) The chorus says..
You are the refuge I run to
You are the fire that leads me through the night
I’ll follow You anywhere
There’s a million reasons to trust You
Nothing to fear for You are by my side
I’ll follow You anywhere
Here I am, 18 years old, starting my second semester of my senior year. I have no clue what I am doing with my life. I haven’t heard back from my top two colleges. In my head I know God has a plan but I’m trying to figure out what that plan is. When I hear the words “I’ll follow you anywhere” I am thinking “Lord, whatever college you have me at, I will follow you. Even if it isn’t in my top two.” (looking back on that makes me want to laugh out loud, HAHA)
Then they sing the bridge of the song…
Wherever You lead me
Whatever it costs me
All I want is You
Jesus, all I want is You
They sing that over and over again and that’s when I was really like “seriously Lord, wherever I go, whatever it costs, all I want is you” and in my head I am thinking “even if it is out of state and super expensive tuition, you’re still my main focus” LOL.
I seriously did mean well but the problem was that I was basically putting God in a box. I was like yeah God whatever you want for me I will follow that, but I’d really love for it to be Auburn. I will follow your plan, but I am pretty sure you want me there. I was surrendering everything to Him all while trying to convince myself that my plan was God’s plan.
I bet God was in heaven like “girllll I’m about to rock your world because I am leading you to Guatemala, Thailand, and Ethiopia and it’s going to cost you $16,600”
I think we do that though. I think we tell God that we know He is in control and that we will follow him WHEREVER he leads us, but then when he leads us to somewhere we weren’t expecting we are like “oh noooo. Sorry God I don’t think I can make that work. I know I said I’ll follow you anywhere but not there.”
Like, what?!?!
The more I heard back from colleges, the more I prayed, the more this whole World Race journey unfolded I finally started to realize just how much better God’s plan really is for me. Who was I to tell Him that I was going to go to college right away, better yet, a college that was in Alabama and $48,000 a year?!
From the day I first heard Follow You Anywhere to today that song has actually been my anthem. The amount of meanings it has had to me is crazy. From thinking it was about where I was going to college to me knowing I will be traveling the world for 9 months is crazy, but I would not want it any other way.
Life is so much sweeter when we keep it in God’s hands and truly believe that wherever he places us is where we are supposed to be.
He’s leading me to some pretty far places and it is costing me 9 months of my life (and literally $16,600) but all I truly want is Him.
(if you made it this far, thank you. you deserve a gold star!!)
blog ya later,
Bailey
