my thoughts on Asbury Revival
There is, as of Monday, a revival breaking out at my alma mater, Asbury College. I will be the first to admit that I have changed since my days at Asbury, and this revival prompted me to think about those changes & how they affect my faith. This commentary was an email dialogue with a friend about my thoughts on Asbury's revival. I recognize that it may offend some classmates, but I offer it as my thoughts, and mine alone.
www.asbury.edu
...I think there was pressure when I was there (95-99) for a revival. (there was one in 1970 that apparently no one can let go of as the only sign of god's presence on the campus)
So I think it's been wanted - a public, outpouring of emotion and "disrupted life." When students don't go to classes & food has to be brought in.
But I also know how "group think" is very dominant there, and peer pressure applies to good things, too. Even young adults are susceptible to this.
I am skeptical, for mostly one reason: when we (seekers '99) were at our sophomore retreat, "revival" broke out after our Saturday night service. Folks cried, everyone stood around each other, praying & crying & "seeking" god. (in quotes 'cause that was the theme of the weekend)...
I stood there, in the midst of it all like a good classmate, thinking - I have to go to the bathroom, and I can't leave, 'cause people are touching me, and THEY'RE probably having a REAL religious experience, and I'm not really sure what the big deal is about.
And we were warm & fuzzy and "in awe of god" for about a month. And then life got back to normal, and the revival that was the sophomore class faded as we realized we still had to go to class & be young adults dealing with life.
One of the only quotes I agreed with was this: "People kept saying, 'It doesn't matter if this ends in five minutes, what matters is what we do when we leave here-how this changes us.' God has become real to me and I have a responsibility and a gift to take and share with the world."
But I think their perspective is one of evangelism and salvation, whereas I now understand the gift of God to share with the world is love-in-a-grace-type-of-way, not "repent and ye shall be saved so you can go to heaven with the rest of us" type of way.
The responsibility I see that comes from revival is prayers for justice, prayers for work on behalf of the lives that people are living, not ultimate concern for where they will spend eternity. (I guess my fear of hell has diminished greatly in 10 years.)
I think it's great that folks are sensing God's spirit and responding to it, but I don’t believe that that's a sign that God WASN'T there, or that they weren't responding before. A friend is travelig great lengths to go to Wilmore today to be a part of this. She actually said - "if the Holy Spirit won't come to me, I'll go to where he is." That made me sad, that we've associated emotions & feelings with the presence of God & the Holy Spirit. Do we not really believe "lo, I am with you always?" anymore? Do we have to have an emotional high to believe that God loves us? To believe that we have a gift for the world and a responsibility to that world? To understand the presence of the holy spirit is one that interprets our groanings and interprets our prayers for the Lord is one (for me) that doesn't require a lot of emotional connection - in fact, I trust heavily that even though I can't FEEL anything right now (shock of my current situation, I think)... I have to trust that God is as with me now as God was with me before, and I try to take comfort in that. I have to trust that the Holy Spirit hears my cries during the night and during the day, and senses the hurting in my soul, and somehow, those are turned into prayers for my current situation in life. I HAVE to trust that even though I can't pray for myself right now, the prayers of others are working in the mysterious ways that things like that happen.
I guess my question comes down to this: can we personally KNOW/FEEL/BELIEVE the presence(constant companionship) of God without an emotional high? Without the chapel revival or the campfire prayers? Without the summer camp alter call or the baptism in the lake?
posted by Becky @ 11:17 AM
3 Comments:
Hi there!! - good to hear from you too. I saw you linked on a couple of others sites too - read your stuff about Katrina (I knew you were down there) - good stuff. And by the way - not offended on the Asbury Revival posting - I think your comments are accurate. It's amazing what 10 years perspective will do . . .
Can I throw up your link on my page?
Ditto. I actually don't think God is in the warm and fuzzy at all. I think that's hype we create for ourselves. I think God is in the nitty gritty, the down and dirty.
Ok for starters your comments about having to pee at the retreat were hilarious. I think that might have crossed my mind a few times as well.
In addition, it definitely was predominant in the culture at Asbury when we were there... the feeling of "are we going to be the ones? the ones who will experience the revivial like the one in the 1970s." And we all full well knew that we weren't as holy as those who had trod the path to Hughes some 20 odd years before us...
Not to offend but, "if the Holy Spirit won't come to me, I'll go to where he is" made me cringe.
I'm still on the fence about it all. I hate to discount anyone's personal experience with God, warm and fuzzy or not. It's certainly not what I've found to be true about His nature but I don't think that it's wise to seek to contain Him in a box (whether that's an emotion-filled revival one or a social justice one). And what we'll definitely pray is that for those students who are having a "life change" sort of moment, they'll take what God gives them and go into the world doing more than bopping people on the head with a Bible and stuffing a tract in their mouth.
As a TA, it sounds like an awfully good excuse for not having done a paper or missing a deadline. Glad I'm working with students on a secular campus. HA.
Good comments Becky. Ever read any Donald Miller?
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