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God tends to use the most unlikely people and improbable places to do some of His greatest work in the human spirit. This week I tell the story of the Second Great Awakening’s onset on the rough Kentucky frontier.

You can learn about this amazing occurrence on my podcast: Anchor.fm/rebeccapricejanney

Have you ever experienced hope deferred? Not outright defeat, but the delaying of your fondest dreams? That was me seven years ago. For more of my adult life I’d been writing, and rewriting, a novel about a young woman in the chaotic spring of 1968 when America was coming undone. She puts all her hope for the future on Senator Robert F. Kennedy, only to be devastated when he is assassinated. The manuscript bounced from publisher to publisher, most of them saying nice things about the story line, but concluding, “This isn’t right for us.” The book didn’t fit into any of their existing categories. During those years my mom would told me, “This book will be published. I know it. Hang in there.”

Finally an editor read, and loved the book, scheduling what I then titled On a Steed of Iron for publication in 2013. Then came the editing phase, which I thought went very smoothly, followed by developing the cover, which did not. The marketing folks hadn’t worked with novels before, and they just didn’t “get it” with this one They kept making my main character, Melanie, a hippie. But she wasn’t. She was a preppy, right down to the tips of her Bass Weejuns. I got frustrated. They got frustrated. They pulled the plug. I was heartbroken. I had come so close!

My mom hugged me and with her face set said, “This book will be published. Don’t ever give up. I know it will.”

My agent and I had some hard conversations about what we could change, including the title, which became Sweet, Sweet Spirit after deciding Melanie would find hope for the future at the February 1970 Asbury College Revival. The title reflects the anthem of the revival. I almost rejoiced that the earlier  Steed hadn’t been published because now I could introduce the amazing visitation of God to the Asbury campus during a bitter time in American history. In addition, the book would fit nicely into a series I’d envisioned about various revivals throughout America’s past.

There came more rejections – until Deb Ogle Haggerty of Elk Lake Publishing caught my vision for the series, and Sweet, Sweet Spirit. I launched the book this past February at the 50^th Anniversary of the Asbury Revival, in Wilmore, Kentucky. What an amazing time I had being in Hughes Auditorium, the epicenter of the revival, and fellowship with those who’d been there in 1970.

Last night at AWSA’s Golden Scroll Awards, Sweet, Sweet Spirit came in third place as the Historical Novel of the Year. While I sat there thanking God for the affirmation, I couldn’t help but smile as I pictured my mom encouraging me never to give up, knowing beyond any doubt this book would be published. Wouldn’t she be happy to know it also is award-winning as well! Thank you, Mom, from this side of Heaven.

Book Four in my award-winning Easton Series will be released in a few weeks. I can’t wait to share this winsome story with you!

For the next several weeks on Inspiration From American History with Rebecca Price Janney, I’ll be exploring past and present beliefs about the afterlife. Why do we believe what we believe about Heaven and Hell? Does it make any sense? These reflections are based on my book, WHO GOES THERE? A CULTURAL HISTORY OF HEAVEN AND HELL (Moody Publishers).

These podcasts are available at Anchor.fm.rebeccapricejanney, or you can click on the link on my website.

Kaahumanu had everything going against her in a society that wouldn’t even permit a man to eat with a woman. And yet, she rose to become queen in an extraordinary twist of history, and from her position, brought all of her people to the dawn of a new day. Listen to her story on this week’s podcast of “Inspiring Stories from American History with Rebecca Price Janney” at Anchor.fm/rebeccapricejanney

In terms of the unrest our nation is currently undergoing, these days remind me of 1968, especially after the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. Many people felt hopeless about the future without their guiding lights. Many couldn’t imagine who, or what, could save them now.

Melanie McKnight was one of them, an idealistic young woman who’d gone all-in for RFK. She watched in horror as he, and King, died, and violence exploded in inner cities across the nation.

But there was hope then, and there is hope now. My podcast this week at Anchor.fm/rebeccapricejanney speaks to that, and so does my new novel, Sweet, Sweet Spirit: One Woman’s Spiritual Journey to the Asbury College Revival. This hope exists largely because Jesus Christ, its risen source, is the same yesterday, today, and forever.