Time for Revival?
I am sure many of you have heard of the “Revival” happening on the campus of Asbury University in Kentucky. To be honest there is some debate on whether it truly constitutes a revival or if it is just a religious awakening. Regardless of the terminology used to describe it, something is happening in the spiritual lives of those students and individuals who were in attendance. I even know of a couple of people who flew to Kentucky to be a part of what was happening there.
I found it interesting that this so-called “revival” was happening. Just a few weeks ago I was talking with Bob Shepard about the campus of WT and he mentioned briefly the idea that maybe we need to have a revival here in Canyon. I understood where Bob was coming from but to be honest I thought that revivals could no longer happen within our society. Bob started talking about bringing in a giant tent and putting it up near the church building and inviting the town and the campus to attend. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Again, I just didn’t think there would be an interest at least from the younger generation. However what happened as Asbury proved me wrong, and I am beginning to see that young people are desperate for the Lord. Even still this was in Kentucky, not West Texas. So still the idea of a local revival seemed distant.
Every Wednesday students from Buffs for Christ have a table set up in the middle of Campus and we advertise for our Wednesday night meal and Bible Class. At this table, we also ask people for prayer requests. Each week I am blown away by some of the requests that are dropped in the box. Everything from Mental Health struggles, Unexpected pregnancies, miscarriages, and more. With each request, my heart aches for our young people who are struggling to understand what is good and right. This week was the same, we had students who were struggling in significant ways and we prayed for them, but there was something different. They seemed to be seeking the Lord.
As I talked with one of the young ladies and asked for a prayer request she told me that recently she had been trying to “Pursue Holiness”. She mentioned that growing up as a Christian she had developed a fear of becoming legalistic and no longer learning about the abundant grace and love of God. But that here recently because of that fear, she hadn’t been living the way God calls Christians to live. Her request was this plea to understand who she is, who God is, and who He calls us to be.
I talked with a second student, who just happened to be visiting campus as she is a recent WT Graduate. She has had a difficult time finding a job that is within her degree. She expressed that she had several interviews coming up and when I told her to put that down for a prayer request she took a bit longer than I expected. After sitting and thinking for a few minutes she gave me her request to put in the box and she told me that She has recently come to realize that she hadn’t been putting God first and that she had been relying on herself to get through the past few months. She told me that she needs to get her priorities straight and get into a better relationship with the Lord, but she just didn’t know how to do that post-college.
These two examples of people seeking the Lord gave me hope. Maybe our young people are beginning to understand that something is missing in our world, something is off, something is distorted. It at least seems that there are a few individuals that are realizing something needs to change. Maybe Bob was right (who doubted that though?). Maybe it is about time that there was a major spiritual revival that happened here in Canyon, maybe with all of the crazy issues in our world today there are people who are ready to stand up for biblical truth and Justice. I pray that if this is true that BFC will be ready for such an event and that we can help students come into a relationship with the Lord.
