Some prayer revivals are very quiet

​Like many of you, my heart has been moved by the the Damar Hamlin story this week.

Monday, throughout the day, I found myself looking forward to watching a high stakes NFL game that night. Tons of playoff implications. Two of the hottest teams in football.

It was a football fanatic's dream. Grab the popcorn and diet coke and plop goes the man into his recliner.

But, nothing lodges the popcorn in a fan's throat quicker than watching a football player die on the field. We all come to watch the game with some level of interest in violence. I'm pretty sure none of us come expecting to see a violent death.

As I was watching another high stakes NFL game last night, I choked up when they showed the Instagram post published by Hamlin yesterday. A post thanking everyone for the love and support.

And for the prayer.

There were moments Monday night when many folks wondered if Hamlin had made his last social media post. So it was indeed a miracle to see for ourselves last night - in the middle of the same venue where we watched him die - a football game - that he and his social media account were alive and well.

There has been a lot of conversation this week about the role that prayer played in Hamlin's miracle. We saw players praying on national TV. Sportscasters prayed in the middle of their telecast. Prayer was everywhere, and because prayer has been such a highly visible component of a highly visible miracle - there has been talk of a resurgence in people acknowledging the power of prayer.

A prayer revival of sorts.

I'm not so sure how helpful that kind of prayer revival is. Which is not the same as saying I'm not completely thankful this young man is alive and well today. I am.

But when we start to attach the power of prayer to a God who loves saving lives when we all ask him with enough passion to do so, people will quickly begin to wonder, then, why has God not saved the loved ones in my life?

Maybe everyone won't ask that question. But it's a question I once asked of prayer. And of God.

One of the first times I asked it, I woke up in a dark basement. It's one of the first clear memories I have of being disappointed by a morning. By the waking up.

I found myself wishing I hadn't.

I found myself angry that the God of miracles hadn't come through with a miracle in my life. Because trust me - no one was rushing into that basement to perform CPR - no teammates were kneeled around me and no one was praying on national TV - but I was dead.

That was one of the first mornings I heard the God of miracles tell me, "I'm not here to save your life, I'm here to give you life."

I have said often the last few years that scientifically speaking, I have been alive all my life. But when you wake up disappointed by that scientific fact, nothing feels alive about being alive.

God came to me in a whisper that morning. A whisper drawing me to pray WITH God and not TO God. A whisper from a God longing for me to invite him in more than I longed for him to raise me up. A God that longed for a prayer revival that he didn't need another living soul to see, but so desperately wanted me to feel.

I woke up today. I woke up without a hint of disappointment in that.

I came to my desk and I put on my headphones and pulled up the song: It Is Well With My Soul. I quietly listened and felt.....

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul

It is well with my soul. Those words, quietly whispered in the dark of my living room - far removed from that dark basement - there is no greater prayer revival than that.

I pray we all quietly find that gift. The gift of prayer. Not the gift that keeps us alive, but the gift that gives us life.

Because that is the greatest miracle of all.

There are so many of you out there who don't feel that all is well with your soul. And I do get that. Please know that while the world rightfully celebrates miracles it can see and touch - God sees you and longs to work a quiet miracle in your life.

God so wants you to know and feel - all is well with your soul.