I Have Built You an Exalted House, A Place for You to Dwell in Forever

Being a jerk is part of my vocation.

There.

Now that that's out of the way we can proceed and you needn't wonder if I know that what I've said is kind of jerky.

I recently received a number of email forwards lauding the outbreak of revival at Barclay College in Kansas. The broad strokes are a missionary on furlough visited the college and many students did things like confess their use of drugs, share that they felt their parents didn't love them, agree to become involved in some sort of ministry, stay in school, etc...

That's cool. I don't think any of it is necessarily a bad thing. In fact, if someone is addicted to drugs, finding a way to end that addiction would be a good thing. Or if someone is estranged from their parents, they should work towards reconciliation. Good things those. I say, "Hooray for you."

But revival? M'eh.

I suppose there are different types of revival, so I guess I am open to the possibility that experiences similar to what happens on Dr. Phil could be a type of revival. I'm sure in the lives of those people, it is a big difference, it is a reinvigoration of life, so I guess a revival of sorts, maybe.

Okay.

No.

I don't know that it is all that revival-y to suddenly overflow with what one has kept bottled-up or to finally come to a decision on a matter, even a deeply troubling or significant matter. I mean, "I was so sad, and couldn't tell anyone" and "I was going to leave school but now I'm not" moments may be significant scenes in the movie of one's life but I wouldn't call it revival. I don't call it revival. I can't.

It seems so individualistic, so self-centered, such a part of the life-crushing way of the world that I am reticent to use revival in regard to the occasion. Other people saying it's revival? Fine, call it revival. What am I going to do, say you're wrong that it seems like revival to you? Whatever. All I can say is I don't think it is, and I certainly don't want to pray or fast or do any of the voodoo that we say would encourage this kind of behavior because it seems like trying to cure a disease with more of the disease.

I am not saying it's bad to get something off of one's chest, or to make some kind of public declaration about a commitment to something or other, but if we're going to set aside the term revival, I think it ought not be for moments of self-understanding and revelation akin to what finds on a reality show cast reunion.

Do we sometimes need to do things like this? Sure. But it just seems par for the course for a "Be a Better You" kind of Christianity which seems like any other Modern, Western sense of self-understanding that's all about you and if that's all you're after rent Pay It Forward or read M. Scott Peck.

If we're going to say revival is a consequence of the Word of God confronting and changing us, then it seems silly at best, and maybe blasphemous at worst to liken it to "An Oprah Event to Remember".

So it is something I would like to see. It is something that better practices of silence anticipate and so maybe something Friends might appreciate. But given what we presently say passes for revival, we'd likely try to put an end to revival rightly called.

There's probably a parable or something about that.