by Rev. Diane Ury
National Ambassador for Holiness
In February 2023 I drove to Asbury University so I could volunteer to help in any way during God’s gracious Outpouring. I was placed in Hughes Auditorium to pray at the altar with people who were longing for God.
That experience touched my heart deeply in a surprising way. I recognized my 20-year-old self in the faces of those who were streaming in from around the world. You see, decades earlier when I first entered Hughes Auditorium, I was secretly despondent of ever becoming a Christian. On the outside I was a “success.” Inwardly I was dry as death. Eventually, I knelt at that altar not knowing what was supposed to happen there. Over months I had watched hundreds of kids my age kneel, meet God, surrender, weep and rise with hope in their faces and voices. Whatever that was, it drew me and allured me with hope. Maybe my desires could be filled?
When I transferred to Asbury College in 1980, the only person I knew was my older brother. I didn’t even know Jesus. But I had a despairing longing to know God. I was sinking in the mire of sin. And I had so many intellectual difficulties that no matter how hard I tried to leap with faith, I stuck to the earth. I lived daily in a heavy fog that wouldn’t lift, within and without.
But the first thing that broke through that darkness was Salvation Army students at Asbury. You see, I was placed on second Glide dormitory in the midst of about 20 Sallies. I was so intrigued by how much fun they were, always laughing and goofing off, and they seemed to know God, whom I did not know, but wanted to. More than that, I couldn’t comprehend why they were so kind to me. They always wanted me to hang out with them. For three years they never stopped inviting me to their corps and retreats. They actually truly loved me. Never in my life had I encountered people filled with love of that nature. Their love was a continual draw upon my broken, empty heart.
Interestingly, God gave me outright permission to trust in their faith, while I was having such a difficult time finding my own. Their curious lives led me into the arms of the One who soon became my Life.
People of every age, no matter how “all-together” their life appears, are longing for Jesus. Those in your neighborhood, school or work, in the bleachers, at the check-out counter, and in your corps are watching your love for one another—and for them. “Why do they love like that?”
Salvationists always have been a curiosity. That’s always been our MO, the way we’ve brought people to experience Jesus. The way you abound in love—that’s a powerful way to give hope.
Jesus prayed, “I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as You love Me.” (John 17:23 NLT)
