Choked Up (Reflections on Out of Range)

I don’t get choked up a lot. In fact I can only remember three times in my life when I have been so dramatically moved that I was silenced by pure emotion.

1. Watching the movie RUDY, RUDY, RUDY. When he comes out on the field and sacks the quarterback, I absolutely lose it.
2. When I preached after my dad almost lost his life from a blood clot. I got to preach the Word on Father’s Day at my home church while dad was in the hospital. Dad is my hero, I was really shaken up.
3. When Annabeth came through the doors and down the aisle on our wedding day. I couldn’t believe that God had blessed me with the sexiest, sweetest, most amazing woman in the world. When I saw her, I stopped breathing.

This past Friday night at Out of Range, it happened to me again. I’m not sure why it hit me when it did (I think it was because it was my first time to slow down in a couple of days). I was sitting with David Platt, Leeland, and Dr. Rhonda Kelly. The building was slammed (we had 429 people register for the event) and it was smokin hot. The room was electric and the worship was rockin. People had come to unite in prayer and worship…with a passion to see the Glory of God. After a video, it was my turn to welcome people, share the vision, interview Leeland, and pray. I got up on stage, looked over the crowd…and I WAS COMPLETELY CHOKED UP. It was only for a couple of seconds, but it hit me hard. I shared the story behind this event in my first blog, “Paralyzed by God’s Glory”. I prayed and asked God to paralyze us. In that brief moment, God did exactly that. I wasn’t choked up necessarily by the size of the crowd. I was choked up by the fact that God’s vision that was implanted in my heart over two years ago was now burning in the hearts of over 400 people. Not for my delight, but for the delight of God. I know that God’s favor was upon us, because I looked into the eyes of people who were delighting in Him. To quote Piper, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

I just received a comment on our website (http://www.outofrange.org/) from someone stating that they are praying that this prayer movement would not end with this past weekend. This is our prayer and this is God’s purpose for Out of Range. Whatever was sparked in the hearts of those who attended, I pray that God would ignite it in a way that would expose His Glory around the world.

It was a great weekend. We prayed, sang, prayed, listened to the Word, prayed, danced, prayed, painted, prayed, wrote in a journal, prayed, witnessed, prayer walked, celebrated, prayed, cried, prayed…and in all of this I was choked up. Thank you God for exposing your Glory to us this past weekend. Expand your vision and call your people to pray.

If you read this blog and attended Out of Range, I would love to hear your thoughts and reflections from the weekend.