Some People Raise Their Hands at Christian Concerts, I Raise Mine at Rock Concerts

As the title suggests, we all know those christian concerts were everyone has their hands up in the air, praising the Lord.

(Awesome post that perfectly describes the people at said concerts)

While that's an awesome way to worship, I've never felt totally comfortable doing that. During my 3/4 years at Caswell Camp, I always {personally} felt a little pressured to do it, since all my friends were doing it. So I never really did it for the right reasons, never really feeling what the rest of my campers were probably feeling.

However, for the last two years I've gotten to experience this wonderfully, eye-opening, slightly scary {in my poor, sheltered sister's opinion} all day concert called Warped Tour.

Warped Tour is for all those who enjoy alternative music {aka, screamo, punk, ect. Call it whatever you want} and during the majority of concerts, a mosh pit will form.

For all of you who do not know what a "mosh pit" is, here is the definition .

As Urban Dictionary perfectly describes, a mosh pit is where you can pretty much push, punch, stomp on who ever is in your way, and get away with it.
No one will be offend (except for little 12-14 year olds who are at a SWS concert) by these actions, cause their all doing the same thing.

For me, I feel like yesterday I experienced something that christian's often experience at their concerts.

Being able to get all your anger out (and lets all admit, I'm a pretty angry person) like that and it being totally expectable is freeing. I've always been very destructive while angry, and this was a very positive way to get out all the anger I had. Everyone, while in the mosh pit, was smiling and having the time of their lives, while totally tearing shit up.

Which in my humble opinion, is quite amazing/awesome.

Another thing that really touches me is that these bands actually care about their audience. More than once, the lead singer would thank the crowd and and tell them how much they loved them and how much they cared about them. And how caring people are in the crowd. If someone falls down, if someone gets hit in the face, you'll have at least 5 people picking you up/asking if you're okay.
These are supposed to be "punk hard-asses".
To be honest, they are more kind and understanding than the majority of christians I've met, who are supposed to be the most caring people in the world.
(^^ Call me cynical if you'd like, but we all know that it's true. I'm not saying all, just some.)

Even though I {am} sunburnt and tired as all get out, I've never felt more free. It's like all that pushing and punching and sharing that camaraderie with 1,000 other people is so freaking awesome.

With that being said, my Warped Tour experience was amazing. Not only did I experience that feeling of complete freedom, I was also there with some of my best friends, one of whom moshed right beside me. I met a lot of people, found out that I was a lot stronger than I thought I was (lifting people over your head that are crowd surfing is never an easy task), and listened to some awesome bands I'd never listened to before (Go check out We the Kings, Parkway Drive and Issues - they're great and put on an awesome show)

My awesome BFF who moshed with me at every concert

Got to be reunited with one of my old best friends

got to be painted and walk around like a dirty hippie - which is kinda like my dream

Issues from that day (my phone died at 12 o'clock that day, so all this was taken by someone else)

I really wish everyone could experience something like this, because it is really something to be seen. I really challenge everyone to at least go to a rock concert, or even Warped Tour 2015 and just embrace the culture of it.