Prior to September 11, we had already scheduled the Jesus Revolution team to be going to churches and schools in the Northeast of the country. Suddenly we found ourselves ministering to some who had known individuals who died that day and many whose sense of security had just been newly shattered.
That fall I saw firsthand how people responded swiftly with fresh decisions to change their lives, as the heart of the Northeast had been broken and soft before God in the wake of 9/11. Many, in deep repentance and tears, made decisions for Jesus and took a fresh look at the priorities of their lives. The temporal values of this world suddenly were giving way to what really mattered. Commitments were made to live for God and to reach out to those who didn’t know Him.
But that window of a softened heart seemed to close very quickly. By January of the following year it seemed that everything had gone back to normal. Well, things may have gone back to normal for most, but not for me. I was marked by it all. Maybe you share the same sentiment. Our national response to God on the heels of 9/11 left me wanting so much more. I just knew that we hadn’t responded as we should have. Perhaps it was because of my previous experience.
Before going to YWAM, my life had been transformed by Jesus because of friends who responded correctly to tragedy. In fact, this personal revival in the love of God is what led me into YWAM in the first place and into being open enough to hear God’s call for my life. Several youth from my county had started a home group Bible study that met on Tuesday nights. Then, one of them, Diana Sharp, died suddenly in a car accident just two months after they had begun this little fellowship. Her funeral was on a Tuesday morning. Fifty teens went forward to the altar and gave their lives to Jesus at her funeral. At the end of the funeral, Diana’s Tuesday Night Bible Study (TBS) friends had printed invitations to attend their meeting that week. One of those who attended was quoted as saying, “We just hung out, cried and prayed together.” What had begun as a simple Bible study turned into quite a move of God. TBS doubled in size that week of Diana’s funeral and didn’t stop growing for years.
This post is an excerpt from the book David’s Tent – Jesus is Worthy of A Nation’s Praise by Jason Hershey
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