‘We really need a revival in this country’: Calls for revival after horrific Nashville shooting

Earlier this week, the whole nation got a taste of unspeakable evil when a deranged shooter entered Covenant School in Nashville and murdered six souls, including three young children.

Words of consolation fall short in moments like these. Far short. School shootings have become all too common in the twenty-first century, but that in no way makes it any easier for the nation to cope with each new tragedy.

Before we even have a chance to mourn the senseless loss of life, politics rears its ugly head, cashing in on the shock. We do not even try to unite in solidarity with the victims’ families anymore. We exploit their inconceivable loss for our political profit. Both sides are guilty of it.

In doing so, however, we leave the root problem unaddressed. We rush to pro- or anti-gun quick fixes. But the crux of the issue cannot be solved by more or less of the Second Amendment.

America’s root problem is a deep, festering spiritual sickness that is incurable by mere “politics.” America’s soul is sick. And if we do not turn her infirm condition around quickly, it may be terminal.

That’s why it’s so unfortunate that so few lawmakers urge us in times of tragedy to turn to the real solution: revival.

“As a Christian, as we talk about in the church, and I’ve said this many times: I think we really need a revival in this country,” declared Rep. Tim Burchett, a lone voice in the wilderness. “I think our ministers and our communities of faith need to come together and start preaching about love from the Bible; it’s in the Bible, from the pulpit, and maybe that could go a long way….”

Revival has been on the nation’s mind since the remarkable events in Asbury earlier this year. But what has changed since then?

Did revival spread?

Did it transform our communities?

Did it prepare us, as a nation, to better respond to the horrific tragedy this week in Nashville?

Or did we squander the zeal so palpable in Asbury, moving on after it fell out of our news cycles?

What do tragedies like these cause you to do? Do they cause you to hit your knees in prayer? Do they lead you to humble yourself and seek He who early patriots acknowledged to be America’s only King? If not, you are defying the Founders' wisdom when they repeatedly warned that America could not stand without God’s constant aid.

Abraham Lincoln was right when he said if America was ever destroyed it would be because we destroyed ourselves. “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected,” he asked. “I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen,” he said, “we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

We are no doubt in that condition Lincoln warned us about. We are killing ourselves — literally and spiritually — from the inside out.

But thank God it is not too late. As the revival in Asbury suggested, God is not done with America yet.

“If my people,” the Lord promised in Scripture, “which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

He is offering us the healing this evil-ridden, violence-plagued nation so desperately needs.

Now, it is up to us whether we will accept it.