A Letter to The 268 Generation of Passion

Dear 268 Generation,

I can still remember the excitement around me as the deep hum of the strings swelled and filled the air and the lights dimmed low.

"Alleluia, Alleluia, for the Lord God Almighty reigns." 

We bowed our hearts and sang together in preparation for what we knew would be an amazing weekend of worship and teaching. We were led by relatively new voices in the Christian crowd - Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, Charlie Hall, Louie Giglio, John Piper, Beth Moore. We sang the brand new song, "Better is One Day" and fell to our knees in worship. The year was 1999.

I had been to Passion in 1998 too. I knew what an awesome experience it was. I loved the way I grew in my faith, the way I was challenged to go deeper in my walk with the Lord, the feeling I got worshiping with 5,000 other college students like myself. So when I came to Passion in 1999, I brought my boyfriend-turned-husband and prepared to encounter God again.

To give you a little perspective on the time frame here, 1999 was 17 years ago.  We didn't sing "How Great is our God" because it hadn't been written yet. We didn't bring our cell phones because most of us didn't have any. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat weren't even a thing and this thing called the Internet was still pretty brand new to us. We hadn't heard of hashtags or emojis. We roamed the halls of the convention center in search of the friends we came with because texting "where r u" didn't exist yet. We looked forward to getting back to our rooms to watch a new episode of Friends or ER or going out to the theater to see Titanic. We took pictures on disposable cameras that you had to wind up before every shot and we hoped they turned out but we wouldn't know until we took them to the store and had them developed. This one of me and my friend Kelly at Passion turned out pretty good. (I'd call her my BFF but back then we wouldn't have known what that meant!)

Most of the college students who came to Passion 2016 this year were still in diapers in 1999. Oy.

So in 1998 and 1999 we worshiped, we changed, we grew, we talked, we gave, we helped, we ministered, we sang, we prayed, we listened. A few years later, we all graduated from college. We went on to do all the things you go on to do when real life begins. Some of us became teachers; some became nurses; some became accountants. Some got married; some stayed single. Some became pastors and worship leaders and missionaries and pastor's wives. We left the low lights and amazing worship and sound teaching and inspiring music of our college years at Passion and traded them in for the real world.

We were the 268 generation. That's what Louie told us. We were going to answer YES, LORD to anything He asked us to do because His name an His renown were the desire of our hearts.

Fast forward to 2016. My boyfriend-turned-husband is the pastor of a church in small town Texas. That makes me the pastor's wife- a role I felt specifically called to at Passion 98. I spent several years teaching elementary school before I turned into a stay-at-home-mom. Now as a mother of six, my days consist of diapers and cartoons and school pick-up lines and lots of cooking. This is just about as real world as it gets. Several years ago I painted Isaiah 26:8 on a canvas and hung it on a wall in our home as a reminder of our commitment to say "Yes, Lord" to whatever He asks of us.

And in the middle of it all, with a hand-painted, sign hanging crooked over Frozen backpacks, we are still the 268 generation. His name and His renown are absolutely the desire of our hearts. We teach it to our children. We share it with our friends and our neighbors and our church. We still seek to make Him famous and we live our lives to see that happen.

This will happen to you too, Passion 2016. One day you will grow up to be 36 and finding yourself very much in the real world and you'll realize that your "Yes, Lord" is just as important in your thirtysomethings as it was when the lights were low and the music was loud. In fact, your "Yes, LORD" will likely have much bigger consequences when you are a full-fledged grown-up than it does when you're in the warm confines of college life. When you're an accountant, a teacher, a nurse, a pastor, a stay-at-home-mom, your "Yes, Lord" means that you are willing to take everything you've worked long and hard to build and lay it on the table before God as a sacrifice. Your spouse. Your children. Your home. Your business. Your church. It's not that your "Yes, Lord" means anything different as a 36 year old than it did as an 18 year old, it's just that at 18 you haven't started the building process yet. You're finishing up the foundation. At 18, your life is wide open in front of you. You're dreaming of all the things you want to do and be and ways you want to change the world. By 36 you've done a lot of building on that foundation, so there's a lot more to sacrifice.

When you lay your life down in surrender with a "Yes, LORD" at 18, you're surrendering all of the possibilities.  When you lay your life down in surrender with a "Yes, LORD" at 36, you're surrendering all that already is and you know exactly what you're choosing to be willing to give up.

Both yeses are important. Without my "Yes, Lord" at 18, I wouldn't be saying "Yes, Lord" at 36. So, fellow member of the 268 generation, if you said "Yes, Lord" when the arenas were full and the worship was rising among the thousands alongside you, remember that one day you will also be asked to say "Yes, Lord" as a grown-up in the real world where the kids are screaming and the bills are piling up and the family dog is howling in your ear. My prayer for you over the next few decades is that no matter where the Lord takes you or what He asks of you, your answer will remain faithfully, solidly, willingly "YES, LORD." It's is SO SO worth it.

So let the hands go up around the world in surrender,
Let the voices echo out a new sound,
So the ones that come behind us will follow in His name
And see the greatness of His renown.

Amber