I am back after a long hiatus.  I've had a busy summer with vacation, company, VBS, household organization, curriculum research and purchasing and just plain enjoying my kids as "mom" and not teacher (although is a homeschool mom ever not a teacher?).  I didn't realize how much blogging, facebook, etc. could take away from interacting with family & friends and keep me from my duties around the house.  So I am trying to figure out how to strike a balance.  I still don't know if I've figured it out yet.  I really enjoy writing and blogging has been cathartic for me.  Before I even began to blog, I had prayed for six months about whether or not God would have me do it.  I tend to let things like this become what my friend Pam calls a "time suck".  But I felt God nudging me toward this so here I am.  And, after spending so much of my and other's time getting this blog set up (I am not a techie -- thanks Zach and HSB Amy, for helping in this area), its here I think I'll stay.  Please pray for me that if God wants me to continue, I'll be able to manage this along with home, relationships and ministry. 

One of the things I like to do while I am working around the house is to listen to various radio podcasts.  Lately, I have been listening to a lot of John Piper's sermons.  I love his preaching.  His passion for God and burden for the lost combined with his powerful, expository teaching style leave me both inspired and convicted.  Here are a few quotes of his on the subject of revival that I wrote down while listening to some of his sermons:  

"What I found was the paradox that genuine, heart-felt pain over sin flows only from genuine, heart-felt pleasure in God."

"Genuine, evangelical, broken-hearted tears over sin, flows only from having fallen in love with and delighting in the beauty of God."

"The main problem in the church is not gross sinning. The main problem in the church is loving innocent things."

"The pain of genuine repentance flows from the pleasure of seeing God. Genuine grief over sin comes from genuine joy in the glory of God.

"When I pray for revival . . . in the American church . . . My first prayer is Lord pour out your spirit in such a way that your people desire Christ more than they desire anything. Pour out your spirit on this church in such a way that we are disentangled from the world and radically devoted and full of allegiance to Jesus more than we want next fall’s school, more than we want that job assignment, more than we want the wedding in August, more than we want the child, more than we want retirement. Just make us love you Father. That’s revival."

"Revival is first a white hot love for Jesus Christ that makes you ready to die gladly at any moment and leave everything behind for the surpassing worth of gaining Christ. That’s revival. That’s what I pray for first."

These were good reminders to me of what I should seek as I pray for revival in the American church in general, and in my own church specifically.  It first starts with me.  It begins with revival in my own life  -- my personal love for and brokeness before God.  Too often my focus is not on my own lack of passion for God and my own sin, but on those same deficiencies I see in others.  Too often my thoughts are consumed with my own self-righteousness rather than seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  This is an area of my life with which  I continue to struggle and seek God for guidance.  I found Pipers thoughts on this subject extremely poignant and relevant.

I was talking to my daughter, Grace, a few months ago about friends. She had been in a youth group Bible study and the leader asked the kids about the kinds of qualities they should look for in friends. Grace was surprised at the answers of some of the kids. They were really focussed on superficial, external qualities such as wearing the right kinds of clothes or having the right kind of hair, etc. (I know, they’re teenagers – big surprise). When she got home, we launched into a great, lengthy discussion on friendship. At some point, we started talking about the different types of friends we have in our lives. We boiled them down into three categories.

First there are the goof- off-with friends. These are the friends that you can be silly and let down your hair with – the kind of friends that don’t let you take yourself so seriously. These friends are the ones who are eager to watch Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre with you and think "Hey, lookin’ good!" when you crimp your hair into looking like a literal Haystack right before the Biola Christmas tree lighting ceremony. These of course could be broken down into subcategories: joke-cracking-goof-off-friends, quoting-famous-lines-from-cult-classic-movies-goof-off-friends, gathering-around-the-piano-singing-top-40-songs-from-the-1980's-goof-off-friends, speaking-in-foreign-accents-goof-off-friends, etc.

Then there are the philosophical friends. These are the types of friends who love having deep, serious discussions about theology, politics, life, etc. Philosophical friends are the ones you can share your mind with, bear your soul to, and who will lift you up in prayer. You can use your big words around philosophical friends. Philosophical friends are the kind of friends you would watch movies like Ghandi or Chariots of Fire with. As with goof-off-friends, philosophical friends also have their subcategories. There are the prayer-partner-philosophical-friends, the-political-philosophical-friends, the-stir-the-pot-at-a-party-full-of-creationists-trying-to-make-a-case-for-theistic-evolution-philosophical-friends.

Finally, there are Swimming pool friends. Aaah, swimming pool friends! Grace came up with this analogy. Swimming pool friends have a deep-end and a shallow-end. They are the perfect blend of the goof-off friend and the philosophical friend. These kinds of friends are great at reading you – knowing when to be light and when to be deep. They see you at your best and at your worst and love you anyway. They can pray with you, challenge you, and encourage you, one moment and have you rolling on the floor laughing the next. With swimming pool friends, you could easily watch Sister Act in the morning and Pride and Prejudice the afternoon. Swimming pool friends – a sweet spot in life.