Singing has always been my favorite part of worship services. I’m sure that it has a lot to do with the fact that music, and really art in general, runs deep and wide in my family. My dad sings, plays the guitar, takes phenomenal pictures, and is quite handy with woodworking. My mother is an incredible jewelry artist and a talented singer. Both of my sisters do some amazing 2-D art, and the eldest caught the photography bug from my dad.

I’ve had a deep appreciation for music for as long as I can remember. I learned to play the cello through middle and high school (Which I hope to get back to someday soon), and I loved learning classic hymns on the cello. They sound so good on stringed instruments. I’m sure my love of music partly comes from my family’s artistic flair, but I think it has much more to do with God.

I wholeheartedly believe that God created music and singing as an intimate form of worship, and as a powerful way to connect with Him. In fact, the Bible commands us to in many different places. 1 Chronicles says:

“Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.” 1 Chronicles‬ ‭16:23-25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

There are many avenues of connecting with God and praising him, and I think everyone connects stronger in different ways. For instance, someone may feel the closest to God while reading the Bible, whereas someone else may feel the strongest connection during prayer. For me though, singing has always been my go-to way of connecting with God.

This year I had the opportunity to go to Passion 2016. While I was excited for everything that was going to happen at Passion, I was most excited about the worship. Passion worship sessions are almost legendary among college aged Christians.

The first night at Passion started off with the host welcoming us, then playing an awesome promo video on the screens, then we jumped right into the first worship session with the Passion band, and none other than Hillsong UNITED! The worship was everything I thought it would be and more. You could just feel God’s presence in the arena.

The best part was when I took a second to look around and see the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people my age, all singing and lifting our hands together. We were here, all of us, for one thing, the same thing, and that was to praise the one true God! It was such an incredible feeling that I will not soon forget.

This post is a part of my mini-series about Passion 2016. If you’d like to read more posts click here.