40 Days

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14

Do you have a life soundtrack? I do. There is a set list that plays continually in my head, and depending on who I’m with or what I’m doing, a particular song will always play. I have a song for Joy, my bride of 26 years. When I think of her, the song “I Will Be Here” by Stephen Curtis Chapman begins playing in the background. 

Each of my boys has a song I’ve sung over them since they were babies. For Alex, it’s “You’ve Got a Friend” by Randy Newman. For TJ, it’s “You’ll Be in My Heart” by Phil Collins. And for Ollie, it is a revamped “Shining Star” by the Manhattans. There are other pieces of music, more instrumentals, that will also spark memories I’ve shared with them. When I hear the theme from the movie UP, I think of my daughter-in-love, Natalie, and the life she and Alex are building. 

I have hymns and favorite Christian songs, too. My all-time favorite hymn is “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” I love almost the whole catalog of artists like Keith Green, Rich Mullins, Petra, and Michael W. Smith. I have not-so-sacred songs and artists in my mental playlist, too—Chicago, Phil Collins and Genesis, Frank Sinatra, U2, and Jimmy Buffet, to name a few. 

But one album that gets a lot of play in my head is one I blame on my mom. Mom introduced me to a lot of different music—classical and contemporary. But I think the most significant contribution was giving me the gift of the 1973 movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar. I think I would have fit in really well with the Jesus people movement. I often wore a 70s-style muslin shirt and a giant leather bracelet during high school. 

Recently, I was on a run and listening to Superstar, and it hit me just how desperate the characters are for movement. Judas is worried about Rome. The Pharisees are worried about power. Rome, by way of Pilate and even Herod, is worried about squashing uprising. Mary is worried about how to experience this man who doesn’t want what other men have wanted from her. 

Simon the Zealot has a super high energy song and is really a church praise event. He’s giving all the “glory and the honor” to Jesus. He’s lifting Jesus Up. He’s acknowledging that something special is happening and that over 50,000 are geared up and ready to do “whatever (he’d) ask them to do.” But Simon has missed something. He wants just a touch of hate at Rome to be a part of an uprising. Simon is worried Jesus is too soft and that the opportunity to take their home back will be missed. 

As I was listening to Superstar it dawned on me that I have all of those characters in my head right now. And I would bet many have some of the same worries, frets, and concerns. 

Forty days from today, our country will head to the polls to elect a new President. We’ll vote for local leaders and representatives in state and federal legislative positions. We’ll also vote on state amendments and a few other things here and there. It’s weird, as this feels like an election most people dread rather than ready for it just to be over! One thing is sure: this election is bringing out the absolute worst in our country. No one can deny there is a funky cloud of yuck hovering over everything. 

I was talking to a colleague this last week, and he read an article that estimated 10% of Americans were encouraging violence against one nominee for president. While nearly 10% also said if the other side won the election, they’d be ready for violence. That’s 20% of our country ready to go to war…with each other! That’s NOT ok. That’s really troubling. That’s…well, demonic, satanic, evil, and whatever other word you want to add to the mix.

Last week, someone stopped in the church and encouraged me to tell my congregation how to vote on a particular amendment. I don’t do that. That’s never going to be part of my soundtrack. It doesn’t mean I won’t be political, but my viewpoints aren’t Republican or Democrat, conservative or progressive. I may live here, but my home is a kingdom somewhere else. I have a higher sovereign and I want Him to be my focus. 

And so, with 40 days until the American people vote, and while the world watches our madness, I feel a stirring in my gut for a Prayer of Awakening. I want to invite you to join me in praying that God would stir the hearts of the sleeping giant called His Church. I’m begging the followers of Jesus to take time each day and lift up this nation, our election process, our cities, our families, and ask that God would stir mightily. He’s done it before. He’s moved mightily in dark times in the past. He can do it again. 

Second Chronicles 7:14 is a verse I learned early in my walk with Jesus. It begins with a two-letter word that has a lot of potential: “IF.” 

Please take a minute and reread it, but do it slowly. 

if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

Humble themselves. Pray. Seek. Turn. What if we spent 40 days doing these very things? What if we chose to spend time lifting up our worries, concerns, frets, and frustrations about politicians, governments, wars, and family stuff rather than gripe about them? 

During these next 40 days, we are going to turn a room in our church into a prayer space. It’ll be open whenever the building is open. It’s a place to pray, write out prayers, sit quietly with God, be “not so quiet” with God, to travail and seek God’s face and hand in the midst of so much brokenness. Anyone is invited to come – to add their prayers to the wall, pray over maps, leave requests for family members, and do nothing but sit in God’s presence. 

I’m convinced that this is a moment for Christ’s Church. Will you join me? If you can’t reach the prayer room here, make one in your home. Let’s take the next 40 days and pray for a real awakening, a move of God in our midst. We don’t need to pray for a winner in the elections; we need to pray that the darkness won’t win – that the way of Jesus will advance, that the kingdom of heaven will expand, and that our hearts will respond to the soundtrack of heaven. Let’s pray. Let’s seek His face. Let’s let Heaven hear the crying out of His kids.