Back in the day, if you were in need of a revival, you usually had to wait for one religious denomination or another to get riled up and make some changes. Nowadays? We can stop by a spa on our lunchbreak for a reviving facial. BAM! You’re “revived” in under an hour! Everything in our culture is constantly trying to tell us we are broken and how to fix it. We are definitely broken, but all these cultural cures around us are merely temporary. They may offer us relief for an hour, a day, or even a week, but if we want true, lasting revival, it has to come from God. And He has blessed us with sixty-six of the best self-help books out there!

Band of Brothers: A Writer’s Paraphrase of Mark 2:1-12

“He is finally back home”, the men heard. “He has been away too long, and we just cannot wait any longer. Our friend needs Him. Our friend needs us. He will not be able to see Jesus without our help. If there is any chance at a miracle, it will be up to us.”

The crowd can be seen from a distance. So many were gathering at the house. As the four men get closer, people rush past them quickly and the men realize their chances of entering the small house is getting slim. They cannot move as quickly. They are carrying their friend on the pallet that has been his life for years. They still try increase their pace while balancing their friend. The pallet wobbles back and forth on the stone pathway and their friend’s eyes widen with worry as they hurry, but he hears his friends’ reassuring words that they are almost to Jesus, so he takes a calming breath.

It might be helpful when considering the importance of revival in community and community in revival, to re-think opportunities to serve within the community that surrounds you—whether your worshipping community at church, your small-group of friends and family, or the community that makes up your neighborhood. A significant part of who we are in Christ is comprised of our group identity, who we are in the context of relationships and community.

“Ephesians 6:11-17 talks about putting on the full armor of God. It gives systematic instruction of arming yourself and protecting yourself ahead of time. It talks about the importance of preparing yourself for battle before the problems arise. While our spirit should absolutely be armed at all times, we should also be mindful and aware of the company we keep. Rather you need someone to bounce ideas off, dating advice, financial advice, someone to swap recipes with or someone to cover you in prayer; you should already have that person in your circle. While life seems to always have a wild card hidden…..”

Some people absolutely thrive when they are alone, while others dread the idea of isolation. Even the most extroverted extrovert needs some time alone, but there is such a thing as being alone too much. God declares pretty early on in man’s existence that we should not be alone (Genesis 2:18), and so He creates a companion for him. For as long as man as walked this earth, he’s been in need of community and now, more than ever, we need to be consistently engaging with godly community for revival.

It wasn't our best Sunday ever. In fact, it started out pretty crappy.

I don't really know all the reasons why I was in the low state, but there I was. We showed up to church late, tired, and haggard. It took us a little while to get everyone ready for church with our current state of only one bathroom for this family of five. I only had time to throw my hair up in a loose ponytail and throw on some jeans. I'm not one who likes being late anywhere,

Evidently Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher extraordinaire, thought that his fellow Christians got the nature and responsibilities of worship all wrong. Essentially, he asserted that the typical Christian sauntering to the sanctuary was crippled by a misassumption about their role in the worship service, a role as passive sponge. The “work of worship” belonged to the preachers and song-leaders whose “job” was to leverage a deepening engagement in the passive congregant. The worshipper basically, mistakenly, saw themselves as an audience member, the worship leaders as the performers, and God as the prompter.

Kierkegaard reminded us that we might have it backwards.

Have you ever needed to place a long-distance call and you had to use a phone operator? They are the mediators. They take our calls and they take down the information of who we are trying to reach and the telephone number amongst other information. Imagine if every single call that was made today was incomplete without an operator. How frustrated would we as people be? The time spent waiting to connect. The time spent trying to communicate our need. We are so very used to being able to pick up our phones and communicate without having an intermediary or woman. We do not need anyone to communicate on our behalf when we make our phone calls. We can Google a company name and all information is at our fingertips. Now imagine if we had to utilize those same operators to communicate with God. If we had to sit and wait for someone to answer us to see if He is available. Waiting to be connected, waiting to be heard, and waiting to make our requests known.

It is the understatement of the century to say “this world be crazy.” In a moment of raw transparency, life has been extremely rough. From the macro level of seeing the tension of politics and moral debates in society, to trying to process what has happened in my own life and family, it has been too much to bear at times. The physical tectonic plates of the world collide with one another to create horrific earthquakes; while the emotional and mental tectonic plates of my heart and mind also slam into each other, creating waves of anxiety, sadness, confusion, and anger within me. I lay awake in the middle of most nights, with a heaviness on my chest and tears streaming my face. I feel so helpless, as my life and the world in which we live, are spinning out of control.

Like many people, my worship practice has looked a bit eclectic over the years. During my time in a private religious elementary school, followed by middle school youth group activities, worship was just part of the deal. Part of the program. I walked through all those motions according to the instructions and didn’t develop much of an authentic foundation. During my teenage period of angst and defiance, I didn’t want to go to church or participate in much of anything. That lack of worship carried on into my 20’s. I would openly proclaim my faith in our Lord when the subject came up, but that was the extent of my effort. I wasn’t doing much of anything to intentionally draw closer to Him. My relationship with God was not a priority; I was too busy enjoying college, starting my career, and doing a million other “more important” things. He was at the bottom of my proverbial totem pole.

The other day I was walking out of Hobby Lobby and I heard this person speaking through a bull horn. She was driving around the parking lot, with her window rolled down, literally yelling at people through a bright pink bull horn “you better change your ways. You’re a sinner and you need Jesus. Are you listening? Repent.” Seriously. That’s not evangelism, that’s craziness.

So, when we say “Save the Lost”, what do we mean? Save the Lost makes me think of one word, evangelism. Not the bull horn evangelism, but the ability to share Jesus with everyone you meet evangelism. And when I think of that, I think one thing...that is not my gift. Back in the day, we used to teach people how to evangelize. I took those classes. All of them. Yep, still not my thing. I’m an introvert and don’t naturally talk to strangers. I have a tool box full of tools, but I don’t have the personality that goes up to someone and says – “Let me tell you about Jesus.” I admire people who do.

Imagine you have a flourishing yard but one patch needs help. You realize you have neglected to

properly water so you turn on the hose only to find it has knots in it. Anyone who has dealt with a hose

knows if it is not properly stored, your hose becomes tangled. The knots and twists in the hose restrict a

steady flow of water from being released. As you give a closer look, you detect areas of pressure and

areas that have yet to receive water. When you get all of the knots out and undo all of the annoying

loops, you have free flowing water. Whatever direction your hose is pointed will in due time be

saturated with water. Over time, you will see growth and a mature landscape. You eventually begin to

see increased life in your backyard.

When I was a young girl, my family and I would faithfully attend our local denomination’s church services. We were part of that community. We knew most of the people there, and that little church brought me a deep sense of tradition, security, and the knowledge that there was a God who loved me and who died for me.

I also knew in my neighborhood some of my friends weren’t part of our church, or any church. On Sundays, as I would go to church with my family, my friends were outside playing ball. I didn’t think much of it.

For several years I have mentioned to my students that turning attention to our stored sacred wisdom—the words of Christ and the apostles, the psalms, the patriarchs, church mothers and fathers, anything that inspires us to wisdom and spiritual victory—is an immediate escape from the mental turmoil of, among other things, envy, lust, and worry.

When we are not perfectly content to remain fixated in our envies, lusts, and worries— and sometimes we are perfectly content—we are confident our favorite mass media offering and social media wondering will discreetly, though momentarily, do the trick. For many of us, the most immediately accessible escape is the 24-7 availability of our mass mediated, pop culture and social media dance partners. It is how we spend a good deal of our discretionary time. Mass mediated engagement is a dominant default mode when we experience mental and emotional agitation. It is the understandable primary escape route when the pantry shelves of inner thought life are barren of substance.

Take a moment and think about the scene or image that would bring you peace. Is it a tropical beach? A mountain cabin? A bustling metropolis with quaint cafes and museums? Or would it be a time and season of your life? Is it a place that lives only in your memories now? I believe we all have an idea of what kind of place will bring peace to our minds. I used to think of peace in this light. Where is the place where I can relax and the anxieties of my life will melt away? For me, being in nature, specifically the mountains with forests and water is what stirs my soul and seems to reset me.

Calendars, appointments, chores, tasks, to do lists, assignments, etc. Grocery shopping, cleaning house, cooking dinner, washing clothes, folding clothes, putting up the clothes! If you are human, you have a “something” that must be done at some point in time. Your schedule might look different from mine but we all have something to do.

Who hasn’t said or thought some variation of these: “Can I get a moment’s peace??” or “I need some peace and quiet!”? The problem with our world’s view of peace this that we often blame our lack of it on everything around us. In fact, we are all really good at finding scapegoats: kids, jobs, friends, family members, current events, other drivers on the road, etc. All these things stand in the way of our peaceful existence. But, in reality, peace is a fruit of the Spirit. He bears peace in us and we are in charge of living our lives in that state of peace. If we want peace, we must intentionally choose it over every other state of being.

Have you ever felt no matter where you turn there is chaos, stress, and overwhelm around each corner? Maybe you feel that you’ll never experience peace again and that it’s something so far away that there is no hope it will ever be yours. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that you have, I know that I have. It can happen before we know it. We think we’re doing just fine and then all of a sudden, we’re drowning in it. We’re short with those we love the most. We are running around to all of the things barely keeping afloat. We wonder when things will get better but aren’t very hopeful.

John Lennon—my favorite of the Beatles—sang a song almost fifty years ago, a counter-cultural anthem, “Give Peace a Chance.” Even at a surface listen, you can tell that the song offers an admonition to consider alternatives to war and ego-driven conflict.

Saint Paul in his letter to the Colossians, would probably push the imperative of “peace” farther and assert that working toward peace deserves even more priority in our lives, something beyond merely giving it a “chance.” I certainly like John Lennon’s intent, but Paul told the Colossian church to “let the peace of Christ rule or ‘umpire’ in your heart, since as members of Christ’s body, you’ve been called to peace” (3:15 NIV).