I have a lot of favorite songs. Just ask Luke... I can't even imagine how many times I've told him that the song on the radio is "my absolute favorite song of all time." It's not really my fault though... I grew up listening to 1930s-40s standards with my grandparents, oldies with my dad, country with my mom, Carly Simon with Sue, and the "Osco, the people who care" album with Kristen and Matt... So the fact that I switch from Chamillionaire to Forever Plaid to "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" to Michael Bolton isn't really all that surprising.

But last night, I heard my favorite favorite song... Amazing Grace... sung by 100 high school kids, packed into the Boalsburg Fire Hall for our second to last YoungLife club of the year. We sing a YoungLifed version of the song with the same words, different melody, and a special guys/girls separate "Alleluia" part. I've probably heard and sung this song 20 times, but I cried last night as if I had never heard it before.

There's just something about hearing high school girls singing the Alleluia part alone, so confidently, even if they just learned the song that night... and to have it followed up by the just-maturing voices of the high school guys singing the same thing. So often, all I can see is their uncertainty about themselves, worried about how they look to themselves, how they look to their friends, how they look to their friends' friends... but last night, it seemed like that all disappeared for a few minutes.

Like God had just rocked their worlds and their hearts... and mine at the same time.