Back in the day (about 1970 to be inexact), a poet named Gil Scott Heron wrote a poem about the black revolution that was taking place in America. The summer of love had had its day and much was happening on the home front. I have the CD of him reciting the poem to music—pre-rap mind you—and it was a real event.

There is a lot I could say about those times but I am having a hard time even finding the shift key on this keyboard—so suffice it to say—the thought occurred to me on the way home from church today about this song in relation to what is happening in Lakeland, Florida.

It is a juxtaposition for sure.

I have watched the revival in Lakeland on my computer many times. It is broadcast every evening on “God TV” from 7 pm until 10 or 11 o’clock. As many as 12 thousand people have turned out on any given night and many salvations and  healings have taken place. Many have taken this awakening back to their hometowns. And that is a good thing.

What I thought the other day is this. As it was in the early church so it will be today. Revival (the revolution) will take place in living rooms and at dinner tables throughout the land. It won’t be televised, it won’t be rehearsed, but it will be “real” and it will take place. I can’t speak to Lakeland or Toronto or other places where the spirit of God breaks out. But I can say that in the end, it will be personal and it will take place all over the land.

What follows is Gil Scott-Heron’s poem from the seventies.

Artist: Gil Scott-Heron
Song: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o’clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

<a href="/files/49366-44812/01_The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised_1.mp3″>The Revolution Will Not Be Televised