On Wednesday, I experienced a type of unity in a room packed with people that I will never forget. Not until that night did I fully understand the power in joining hands, in bowing heads, and in the complete togetherness of a group.

In light of what has been recently happening to our nation, my senior pastor at my church called for an urgent prayer service. He stressed the significance of our community showing up to this service as if the earth would stand still for an hour and a half while we dedicated a moment to our shaken nation. Little did I know that he was actually spot on.

I showed up at the prayer service with my family and church community as we all scrunched in to one service, expecting to feel peaceful and hopeful that things could finally start heading in an optimistic direction.

The music started with a friendly tune that we all knew and happily sang along to. Then, the worship leader started playing minor chords on his keyboard. If you aren’t a music junkie like I am, minor chords are the sounds at the intro to a song that can instantly make you fall into a deeper place. The music started getting slower, the words started getting heavier, and the tears started welling in my eyes.

For you churchgoers, you probably know that this is typically how worship works. You start off all happy and excited to come to service with a fun “We Love Jesus” tune, and then that familiar sad song hits you like a ton of bricks and makes you get emotional. However, that night was different. There was something about those chords the worship band was playing, and the words that they were singing. Something terrible was happening to our nation, and it was finally resonating with me more than it was when I read the news or saw the tweets. It was starting to become real.

After a few more songs of me trying but failing to hold back my emotions, my pastor finally took the stage to address the recent events to our church. He kept referring to this theme of unity and how so much of our world is constantly put on either side of an issue instead of working together as one people to resolve it. There was this constant idea of unity.

There was a point in the service were my senior pastor called out all of our other pastors in our church. Each of them prayed with and over our church for various different things, from the mourning friends and family to the strength of our nation through these horrific times to removing the darkness from our world and showing the light. Something about all of us in that room holding hands together, listening to the words of our pastors, was so empowering. I felt at peace, and as if time had stopped. I heard these words and in them felt the pain and hardships of everyone in that room. I even felt it from everyone outside of that room. I could feel the growing fear in our hearts, the desperation for peace. And, in that same moment, I felt it slip away as love and unity started to flow into our hearts and take over.

Now, I consider myself a very religious person, and I’m not here to tell you that “prayer works” and “love conquers all” because, although I believe that it is true, I respect all people and all religions, and I truly believe that this power of unity I experienced can be found in any place at any time. Unity is not something that has to be formed through God and through prayer. It can be formed in a coffee shop when you are sharing your favorite movies with a new friend. It can be formed in a group that shares the same quirky passions as you. It can be formed in the workplace when you find a rhythm that works for you and your coworkers. It can be formed at a concert when you and thousands of other people are singing the same songs, despite anything else, and are alive and living together in a moment. And it most definitely can be formed within a nation that agrees to put differences aside and choose love. Choose compromise. Choose unity.

There is something about joining hands. There is something about coming together. There is something about sharing passions with others. There is something about healthy debate. There is something about moving past hate and pursing love.

There is something about unity, and there is something about it that can change the world.