I'll admit it: I cried. I tried to stop the waterworks. Really, I did. I pinched up my face. I looked away. I did the guy-grunt along with the uneasy foot shuffle to distract myself, but there was no stopping the tumbling tears. I was overcome with raw emotion because of the scene unfolding before my tear-soaked eyes.

I wasn't alone. It's hard to tell the exact number who involuntarily participated in squirting out tears. It could be as high as 1,431 teens and adults. We all united our worship voices to the praise of our Lord at the 2009 WELS International Youth Rally. Souls were so saturated in joy during the opening worship hymn "In Christ Alone," so moved by the roar of Christian voices, so overtaken by unity of the faith that tears became the visible manifestation of the overflowing, inward joy!

The sight and sound of souls committed to Christ is so much better than any box-office blockbuster. Etched into my memory of that opening service is the excitement I felt for the teens. They had no clue how Jesus would touch their lives and how he would alter them. But I knew. I knew because I wouldn't have been blessed to deliver the sermon at the opening worship unless God had firmly grabbed my heart through the gospel in a similar circumstance.

Sixteen years earlier, I took a small leap of faith by attending my first youth rally, the 1993 WELS International Youth Rally in Estes Park, Colo. Even though my youth leader promised a life-changing, faith-emboldening, rip-roaring, good time, I was suspect of anything an adult called "cool." After all, I was a 15-year-old more interested in sports and dodging responsibilities than improving my life's focus.

When I boarded the bus all those years ago for our 15-hour trip, I fully expected to be the same teenager when I returned. I had dreams of going pro in sports. Yep, that didn't pan out! I had visions of meeting a cute girl on the trip and calling her my "girlfriend." That didn't work so well either! And I had a plan to become a surgeon. But God had other plans. I just didn't know it.

When our tired bus finished the climb to 7,500 feet above sea level, I cautiously stepped out and joined the sea of other anxious teens who were all overwhelmed and tired, wondering what was coming next. We were led into a timbered building and nervously sat, hoping all the fund-raising, all the lost time with family back home, and all the traveling we had endured would be worth it.