I'mma blog but....

I'm pretty much speechless right now.
Well,...okay yes. I am. I could t.r.y. to explain how I'm feeling, but I don't think there are words.

Tonight was Connect Rome's night of worship for December. The second one I've been to.
The first was great, but I left with a headache. It was a worship experience I'll never forget, but it wasn't on the top of my list.
Tonight....tonight is on the top of my list.
You know how in really huge corporate worship settings there are enough people praying the presence of God around the room that you can feel it? Like Passion, for instance, which is absolutely incredible if you haven't experienced it yet. GO!
Okay, well take the tangible presence of God in Phillips Arena on any given night of Passion, smush it and stuff it into the small, cast-off Mexican restaurant of a church that is Connect Rome.
I'm serious. Blow your mind? That much God in one room? Yeah..me too. It completely ... I didn't even know anymore. I just didn't even know.
I don't really think it was a "defining moment" in the sense that we would think of it as humans, but it was definitely a God encounter..a Love encounter.
You can't walk away from that unchanged or unaffected. Countenance change.
That's actually my point:
love encounter --> Countenance change.
love encounter --> Countenance change.
LOVE encounter --> countenance change.
It's that epic. It was that epic. It still is that epic.
Usually when I get into worship, I start praying..a lot. You could call it a conversation because that's what it really is. Sometimes it goes along with the music..sometimes it doesn't. Usually it gets written down, but tonight it didn't. For one, my journal was across the room, but I just..I couldn't make my hands work if I tried.
When David Crowder said, "Let love EXPLODE and bring the dead to life," he must've had some sort of vision from this night of worship. "I'm lost in Your freedom. This world I'll overcome."
I know, walking into that place tonight, I was dead. My faith had dwindled. I was staring these finals in the face and I didn't even know how it was going to happen...but tonight. wow. Talk about a revolution in my heart. Rejuvenation? Restoration? They all apply, I think.

I'm always in awe in worship with other people. I was absolutely surrounded tonight by some of the most incredible people I know. Literally...on ALL sides. It was wild. Let me tell you, to feel their spirits being lifted up...That blows my mind every time - even with complete strangers..but especially with these beautiful people that I know. I knowwww them. Maybe I don't know their life stories, but I know THEM. And just to know that God has loved us SO.MUCH. that we are actually able to love other people..my heart just goes nuts.
side note: I am seriously eating cookies like they're candy right now. I can't help it. Oh.no.
I had my eyes closed most of the time and didn't even realize it...but the few times that I actually saw and took notice to what was going on around me. Woah.
Those images are burned in my memory. When I go to bed tonight, I'm going to close my eyes to see people worshiping.

Love encounter --> countenance change.