If you are active on social media, follow any Christian podcast or blogs, you probably have seen comments about the ongoing chapel service that started February 8 at Asbury University in Kentucky. A simple chapel service that the students are used to attending every week turned into a supernatural event that has drawn people, young and old from all around the world. It has been a worship service that has continued day and night. I heard about it a couple of days before I decided to look into it. Living in this world over the past few years has created an environment of skepticism and doubt for many, myself included. Combine skepticism and doubt with social media responses that fall short of good manners, and you have a recipe for ugliness. It’s disheartening to see that some people can’t seem to help themselves by saying unnecessary things that are uncalled for. When did society start believing that every thought and opinion needs to be put in writing on a social media platform? When did certain people decide that they have a self-imposed responsibility to be the revival police?

If you have read my blogs for very long you have heard me talk about being raised and taught that our “denomination” was right and everybody else was wrong. As I grew spiritually, I began to discover that there are many opinions about biblical interpretation, and it was important to minor on the minors and major on the majors. The pride and arrogance that often accompany such thinking can cause a lot of disunity and hurt.

My two cents…I decided I first wanted to watch the actual chapel service to see what the speaker was saying. I heard nothing spectacular, yet I did hear something I loved. God is love and He has called us to love one another. In my opinion, the best part of the talk was when he said, “BUT we can’t love others like God unless we allow God to love others THROUGH us!

I then watched some of the live stream of the revival and saw nothing too strange or crazy. What I did see was ordinary people singing love songs about God and to God. Yes, occasionally someone may have yelled out a hallelujah but who am I to think negatively of them. Why is it okay to scream and yell like a crazy person at a sporting event but if someone gets excited about praising God they are looked at as fanatical.

I also listened to a few of the faculty talk about their thoughts on what was happening at their school. They truly sensed something was happening there that was out of the ordinary. However, because of social media it has drawn in people who express their worship in very different ways. People were coming to see and experience these services from all over the world. They were reporting things like immediately feeling a spirit or presence of love that was undeniable when they entered the room. Whether I like the way someone is expressing their love for God or not, how can there be anything harmful going on? God’s word tell us that the world will know we are disciples by our love. John 17 tells us “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. When Jesus repeats himself its usually because it’s something important.  Whether you agree with this event or not, live and let be.

So as Forrest Gump says, “And that’s all I’m going to say about that.”