Seeing the Unseen God in Unattainable places
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 1:18 NIV
I arrived in Wilmore, KY at 5am. My estranged wife and I drove four hours in the middle of the night so we could get a spot in line. We got about an hour or so of sleep in the car in the parking lot across the street from the chapel. We took turns waking up periodically to see if a line was forming yet. There would be thousands of people lined up to get into the chapel. Just after 7am, we decided to leave the warmth of the car and save our spot in line. Already it looked like we might not get into the chapel. I was frustrated with myself for potentially missing my chance to get into the chapel because I didn’t want to get in line at 6am. There were at least 200 people in front of us already. It was about 20 degrees outside and the sun hadn’t quite risen yet.
I wrestled with this idea. What is special about this chapel? Can’t God be found in any building? Or anywhere for that matter. A few days before, I had seen a post on Facebook from my cousin’s boyfriend of the Asbury chapel. I didn’t know what it was at that time. I commented on his photo, “I want to attend your church. It looks awesome!” He replied, “That is not my church, that is the Asbury chapel.” I got on instagram and started learning about the revival through reels and posts from various sources. I didn’t realize it at the time, but he had been helping lead worship during the round-the-clock revival.
I was quite determined to go see this place for myself. Just from seeing that one still photo, I was immediately drawn to it. I wanted to be there myself. I brushed aside those feelings and told myself, “whatever, it’s not a big deal, God is everywhere.” But still, something inside me was nagging me to figure out a way to get inside that chapel. I made plans with my cousin to go together, but she had to cancel. I figured it just wasn’t meant to be.
A few days later, it was Friday night. I was sending random sappy emails to my estranged wife. Unbeknownst to me, she was also trying to find someone to go with her to Asbury and all the prospective travel companions she had lined up also cancelled on her or said no. She knew I would say yes if she asked me to go with her, but she also didn’t know that I was looking for a travel companion to go with me to Asbury. 😂
So there we were. Standing in line for hours, not exactly sure when or even if we would get into the chapel. It was so cold. Everyone was waiting with anticipation and excitement. Everyone wanted to get inside the chapel. I continued to wrestle with this question. What is so special about this building? Why, God’s Spirit is inside! It sounds so juvenile when you say it that way. God’s Spirit is everywhere… he is also inside of us, dwelling in our deepest parts, in our hearts.
After 5 or 6 hours of waiting in line, the line began to move. They opened the doors. We watched hundreds of students go in. Of course they were letting students in first. I began to lose hope. There would be no room for us. Another 45 minutes passed. Soon our line was moving again. They were putting guests (non-students) into the balcony. It took another 30 minutes before we got to the barriers to be let through. We made it. We went inside the chapel, climbed the staircase, and found our seat in the balcony.
The feeling was as if I had entered into another dimension. (to be continued…)
