Here is a theory of revival \u2014 a theory about what is happening when this thing we refer to as \u201crevival\u201d happens. I won\u2019t describe this as \u201cmy<\/em> theory\u201d of revival because it\u2019s not unique to me and because it\u2019s not the only theory I have about this.<\/p>\n I believe that one of our deepest needs is to be fully known and fully loved. The essential part of that is being fully loved, but that can\u2019t happen without the other part \u2014 being fully known. We can\u2019t George Santos our way into being fully loved, creating some facade or false persona that hides the parts of ourselves we know to be unlovely. That wouldn\u2019t work because on some level we would know it didn\u2019t count. It wouldn\u2019t be me<\/em> that was loved, but the false version of me I\u2019d presented, and so the need to be fully loved would remain unmet. It only counts if we are fully loved as we actually are, in our entirety \u2014 unlovely bits and all.<\/p>\n Christianity teaches that we are both fully known and fully loved by God. Christianity is not unique in teaching this, and different strains of Christianity express this in different ways, with some emphasizing that God fully loves us despite<\/em> fully knowing us, hammering on the point that we are utterly unworthy of such love. Some traditions emphasize the enormity of God\u2019s grace while others emphasize the enormity of our need for such grace, but either way this notion of God\u2019s abounding grace is at the core of what we Christians believe. And part of what we mean by this word \u201cgrace\u201d is that we can be, and are, both fully known and fully loved by God.<\/p>\n This is something we Christians believe and avow and recite to ourselves. We affirm the propositional truth of this belief. If someone asks us if this is true we will answer \u201cYes.\u201d We are as convinced of it as we are capable of being. But God\u2019s love and God\u2019s grace still, usually, seem like intangible abstractions.<\/p>\n We believe in grace, but we don\u2019t always feel<\/em> it. We don\u2019t usually<\/em> feel it.<\/p>\n And what I think is happening in those moments we describe as \u201crevival\u201d is that Christians who have long assented to the abstract idea of the existence of divine grace stumble into the unbearable realization that it\u2019s actually true. They are, in that moment, encountering the possibility that despite every unlovely thing they know to be true about themselves, they are still fully known and fully loved. Amazing grace, etc.<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible that this overwhelming acceptance of grace \u2014 of being fully known and fully loved by God \u2014 is purely delusion. It\u2019s entirely possible that there is no God and no grace and no one to fully know or to fully love us, and that Christians in the throes of \u201crevival\u201d are merely caught up in a kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy, imagining themselves to be the recipients of a boundless love that does not, in reality, exist. In that case, what I\u2019m describing here is not what people in a \u201crevival\u201d are actually<\/em> experiencing, but merely what they imagine<\/em> they\u2019re experiencing, but either way the experience is, for them, the same.<\/p>\n And but so, that\u2019s what I think \u201crevival\u201d refers to, a moment in which we encounter the possibility that we are both fully known and fully loved by God.<\/p>\n That moment may be only a moment or it may stretch on for hours or even days. And it doesn\u2019t abruptly end or fade away completely, even after the initial overwhelming experience passes. But the key thing, I think, is that this moment is not itself the story, only the introduction to the story. The story involves what happens next<\/em>.<\/p>\n The experience of revival \u2014 this encounter with the overwhelming reality of grace \u2014 leaves one in something like the state of the Roman slave the parable Jesus told in Matthew 18:<\/p>\n A king wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him, and, as he could not pay, the king ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made.<\/p>\n So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, \u201cHave patience with me, and I will pay you everything.\u201d<\/p>\n And out of pity for him, the king released him and forgave him the debt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The enormity of the grace shown to this hopelessly indebted man is what we encounter in this thing we refer to as \u201crevival.\u201d It is the grace that loves us entirely, despite knowing us entirely, erasing the debts we could never hope to pay and granting us the freedom we never expected to see.<\/p>\n If that were the whole story or the end of the story, we\u2019d call it the Parable of the Forgiven-and-Beloved Servant but, alas, this story isn\u2019t over yet. That first part is really just the set-up, the premise, for the main part of the story that follows. And that story is usually called the \u201cParable of the Unmerciful Servant,\u201d because this is what happens next:<\/p>\n But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, \u201cPay what you owe.\u201d Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, \u201cHave patience with me, and I will pay you.\u201d But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It doesn\u2019t go well for our previously fortunate main character here. By cutting others off from grace he cuts himself off from it as well. He dis-graces himself.<\/p>\n The story didn\u2019t have to end like that. He might have forgiven others\u2019 debts the way he\u2019d experienced the forgiveness of his own. He might have turned into a giddly grateful, joyful figure like Zacchaeus or Ebenezer Scrooge at the end of their stories. That was an option. Both choices were available to this man as he emerged from his encounter with grace.<\/p>\n Anything<\/em> is possible after such an encounter. But we don\u2019t know what the story is, or what the story means, until we see what happens next.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here is a theory of revival — a theory about what is happening when this thing we refer to as “revival” happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n