Of revivals and tennis

Today during worship we sang the song "Touching Heaven Changing Earth". During the "send revival" refrain, a thought came into my mind (dunno if it was from the Lord or just my own thought but anyways) that we often sing and pray for a revival in the church, but do we know what a spiritual revival really entails?

So it was affirming for me to hear Calvin echo my thought soon after during the challenge. Indeed, how can we ask the Lord for a revival in the church as if that's all that is entailed in the Lord actually bringing revival to a place? Calvin mentioned the need for hearts that are wholly committed to the Lord, and people who are wholly convicted of all the sin in their lives. We may earnestly desire to see the Lord accomplish great things in the church, but what sacrifices are we prepared to bring before Him?

Was recently reminded of this verse in an email from Ming Hui to all those people associated in one way or other with swordfighters (more on that another time...): 1 Chronicles 21:24, where King David, after being shown mercy by the Lord through the preservation of his kingdom in spite of disobeying the Lord, insisted on not sacrificing a burnt offering to the Lord that cost him nothing, for indeed the Lord is worthy of so much more than that.

So similarly, i think that many of us (myself included) have either conciously or sub-conciously not had our affairs fully pleasing before the Lord. How vital it is for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to come upon us, and impact us of all that is not right before Him, before we should even talk about spiritual revival among us (of course, sometimes this convicting work forms part of the revival...).

Anyways, today also marked the first time i've played tennis in many months. Went to Bev's house again (that's the only place i've ever played tennis at) with Daniel Vai, Sheena, Serene and Jeremy Koh after church (crossover people are also the only people i've ever played tennis with). I must say that despite not having touched a racket (i won't even begin to recount my badminton fiasco again) for months, at least i still was able to know what is going on, and even serve properly and not hit out or the net from time to time... And at least, thanks to my recent tennis-watching craze (or at least whatever seconds i can get from having channelnewsasia's mediocre sports highlights, since it is the only tennis i can get on free-to-air tv - cos no cable have i), i have become aware of the existence of many more shots than the single-handed forehand (i.e. how one would naturally hit the ball), which previously was all that stocked my poor excuse of an arsenal of tennis shots, and tried to at least attempt them, to largely little success. Ah, but little success implies a bit of success, doesn't it =)

So in short, i've improved =) and that's all that matters...

(Note to self: expect a sorely aching right arm upon waking up tomorrow morning...)