And yet, and yet…

What does revival look like in a believer’s life?

At a recent youth camp, the idea was posed to us of “returning to the way things used to be” with regard to our faith. That statement made me pause…Is that a true goal? Should we desire to return to some previous form of faith and worship from earlier times in our lives?

I know that in Revelation, Jesus exhorts one of the churches to “Return to your first love.” I get that. So often in our faith, through failure and disappointment, we can find our relationship with Christ dusty, predictable, and dead. We need that revival of the first love that we had.

But here’s the question: in our lives when we return to a right relationship with Christ we don’t look the same. We carry experiences, wisdom, and relationships. Growing in my faith as an almost 40 year old by nature will not look like it did for me as a 25 year old. A revival in faith will not make a person younger and will not erase the changes we’ve seen in our lives.

I watched as people turned away from the offer of redemption because of their shame and their guilt. Their fear of the unknown. Their fear of rejection for what they’ve done and who they’ve become. Because they do not believe that they can become innocent and naive as they once were, they feel a sad separation from God. But is it true that we have to become what we were again to be accepted by Christ?

The particular biblical example that rolls around in my head for this is when Jesus appears to His disciples in His resurrected body. Do you recognize that in His eternal resurrected body He still bears the scars of His crucifixion? They were how Thomas identified Him. The book of Revelation even makes note of this as Jesus reigns on His throne in heaven like “a lamb as though slain.” The scars, the greatest victory Jesus made for us, He bears in eternity.

So when we come back to the shoreline of revival, what does this mean for us? I hope you understand, friend, that the footprints you left on the shore in your previous experience have washed away. It’s a different beach, different waves. The shoreline has seen growth and tide and storm, and so have you. But here’s the beauty of it: when we return in renewal of our relationship with Christ, we are given the ability to redeem the scars. The areas of our sadness, of our struggle, of our mistakes, when given over to Jesus become the marks of our victory.

I made the comparison the other day to the image of soldiers. When a group of soldiers heads into battle, what kind of leader do they want to follow? Do they want to follow the perfect looking guy with a clean uniform and bright new buttons? Or do they want to follow the veteran, the guy with scars, the one whose uniform may not be pretty, but it has held up in previous battles.

Christian, you need to know that your scars that you bear to the shoreline can be used by Jesus to save others. The struggles and disappointments you’ve borne in this life are not unique to you. But what is unique is a person who gives those sins and struggles over to the Lord and lets Him transform them to His glory. And this the beauty of spiritual renewal: you don’t have to be the same person who first came to Christ. He died for the person you are now just as much as the first time you bent your knee to Him. He wants to redeem you and empower you now for the task ahead. If He doesn’t hide His scars from us, we shouldn’t hide ours from Him.

On the shorelines of renewal, we may be battle-worn, but we stand ready to be redeemed, called to the next voyages, the next footprints in the sand, and the next horizon.