Sunday, July 27, 2008

A BLESSED NIGHT

*UPDATE* I think I fixed the you tube video at the bottom of the post. Click on the small arrow in the corner, for better luck. Please remember, that when I taught Special Education, I had to get the students to work the film projector. And, when I taught 4 year olds, my computer expert was a little boy named Cameron.

Friday night Jim, Ethan and I went to an outdoor Travis Cottrell concert in Destin. It stormed like crazy late that afternoon. But it turned out to be absolutely gorgeous. When we got there, the sky was declaring the wonders of His majesty. Unbelievable!

I would describe the evening like this:

worshiping with nothing between you and the sky
a warm breeze blowing off the gulf
watching brothers and sisters in Christ praising God
seeing friends you didn't expect to see
realizing you would not want to be anywhere else
being humbled that God would draw you to Him and bring you to this place
hearing Travis and his worship team sing things about God that you know are 100% true
opening your eyes and seeing the hands of strangers lifted up in surrender

. . . even the 95 % humidity didn't bother me. Neither did the garnet and gold FSU chairs that sat right in front of me the entire time. (well, Kinda - just kidding- Go Gators!)

We live in a little place we have nicknamed Sleepy Hollow, but we also must be living under a rock. We had never heard the song, Mighty To Save. It was obvious that everyone else at the concert had. Well, it is definitely on the iPod as I type.

Have you ever been drawn to someone worshiping before? That happened to me as the worship team sang Mighty To Save. I saw a woman out of the corner of my eye. I guess I noticed her because she reminded me of a friend. As I watched her sing, I was touched. Touched because I could see she was singing the words with every ounce of her being. I thought, God has definitely moved some mountains for her. And she's believing that He is going to move some more!

He has moved mountain after mountain in my life, too. Actually, they haven't been mountains. They've been mountain chains. Like the Appalachians, the Rockies or the Blue Ridge. Sometimes, it has felt like all of them together! Every time He has moved one, it's been clear it was Him and Him alone. Every time He moves a mountain in my life, the smaller the next mountain seems.

I have never heard anyone sing a version of In Christ Alone that I didn't love. It's just the words. It's the Gospel, sung. But, no one sings it like Travis Cottrell. I've sung it a thousand times with him. Doing dishes, driving down the road, working out at the gym or taking an early morning walk. What a blessing it was to get to sing it with him in person.



Here is Travis singing In Christ Alone on you-tube. Just click on the arrow.






3 comments:

  1. Felt like I had been there with you. The Youtube video is no longing working. LOVE YOU MaryLois

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  2. Thanks for letting me know. I was so proud of myself for doing it. It worked last night. I'll try to fix it when I get home from the gym. Yes, I did say I was going to the gym!!!
    Love you, Cheri

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  3. Thanks for the song. It is beautiful. I love it cause it has the words written and I can understand the singing when I see the words. AGE LOVE YOU MaryLois

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