Blessed and Highly Favored

So typically, I'm not one to openly talk about religion since I know it can become a very touchy subject. But after the church service I went to on this past Sunday, I don't think there is any way I can devote this blog to anything else.
A couple months into the first semester, a friend of mine invited me to join him at a church off campus that he recently went to and enjoyed. After my first visit, there was something I really liked about the church and I tried to make it a habit to go every Sunday. This past Sunday, however, something happened in church that never happened before. Nearly the entire congregation was propelled to a state of worship that involved mostly crying, but also some vocalized statements of faith in God. Growing up, these were the types of church services I had become accustomed to, so I felt right at home during this particular service. What captured me the most, however, was how this state of being "moved by the Spirit" (as we tend to say in church) came about. No, the pastor didn't deliver a stirring word that resonated with the congregation but in fact, it was through the gift of song. The praise and worship team (or the choir) sang all of two or three songs and from there, people began to "feel the Spirit moving in the church" or some message from the song began to resonate with their own lives, which brought about tears (at least that was definitely the case for me). I know I devoted a previous blog to the rhetoric found in a Whitney Houston song but I think this is a different type of example that has the ability to "touch" people in such a deeper way.
Sometimes when I'm going through things and school starts to feel overwhelming, I tend to look forward to going to church because it provides an escape from the stresses I'm experiencing as I remind myself of all of my blessings. Then, whatever I'm feeling just does not seem so bad because I begin to realize that even through my tough times, I am still being blessed. For me, gospel songs have always been able to speak to my soul far better than any other song and far better than some pastors in church. On Sunday, I found it absolutely amazing how the words of a few songs could resonate with an entire congregation to the point where nearly everyone was in tears. For me, it was absolutely amazing to experience something like that because for us Christians, it's a testament to God's grace and goodness in our lives. Furthermore, it was great to see how the words of the song managed to resonate with so many other people as well, which enabled many of us to release whatever we were bottling inside. Ultimately, it was just an amazing experience and what made it all the more astonishing was that the pastor did not even have to preach a word.