I was still in my robe and wet hair on the bed, eating breakfast from the room service tray when the phone rang. She apologized for what she was going to ask before I even knew the request. Said she knew it was last minute but they had some changes in the schedule and could I, would I please be willing to introduce Kay Warren before she spoke in a main session this morning.

Stand up in front of a couple thousand people in a ballroom and introduce her.

And the night before, the way God showed up in a hotel conference room among friends in a chance meeting with the son whose father led me to Christ thirty years earlier, it gave me the courage to say yes, I will do it.

Because if God can bring your past to collide with your present in a matter of moments, to show how much He loves you,  then He can give the courage to do something you feel incapable of doing.

I met Kay in the ready room, holding the paper with a few lines about her life, just in case someone didn’t know the woman who is a household name in the Christian world. And I thought, is this all I am to say about someone that sells millions of books, travels around the world, touches countless souls for Christ?

We all stood quiet among the bottled water and fruit trays watching three assistants pull wires through her suit jacket, around hair sprayed perfect, while going over notes at the same time.  All the while, she stays focused mentally between questions, like being saturated in the afterglow of His presence in the holy of holies.

Jesus pulled back the veil, let me see behind the stage of the mantle of spiritual authority that he gives to those He chooses, and I understood the fear of the Lord in a new way.

An assistant asked us to gather for a photo, like something checked off the to-do list. Afterward, we stood in a circle holding hands, asked God for His will to be done. And when I closed my eyes, He said, “You’re a writer Shelly, just introduce her the way you would write the first paragraph of a story.”

I stood at the podium, light blinding the view of the crowd beyond the first two rows in the expansive room. I could see her clearly seated there to my right. She looked at me with a confident destiny smile.

My voice echoed loud through the microphone, but I didn’t care. For some reason, standing there at the podium, I felt more like myself than I ever had.

Linking with Lisa-Jo for Five Minute Friday with the one word prompt: Loud. And it is always so interesting to see what comes to mind with one word.