Come, dance with me

I love to dance.

Well, I love the idea that I love to dance!

I have never been good at it...junior high and high school dances were agony for me...

Standing on the sidelines both hoping and dreading that someone would ask me to dance.

Much as my mind pictured Ginger Roger moves, my body functioned more like Frankenstein.

So I would stand there. Waiting. Hoping...

That by some miracle, my body would miraculously cooperate with what my heart longed to do.

Thirty years later I'm still waiting.

But today I got to thinking...

That maybe I have had it wrong all these years...

That I have missed the point.

You see I have a nephew, Zachary...

Who dances.

On ice.

Seriously!

The times I have watched him in person, in a freezer they call an arena, I have been swept out of myself and into worship of the God Who creates such gifts of beauty and grace.

Now, did I mention that he has an ice-dance partner, Madi?

That makes it a little more interesting doesn't it?

It's one thing to master your own moves and work your own choreography.

But two people skating together in perfect symmetry and motion?

That demands a lot more effort...

Because then it's not just about you.

A successful dance partnership depends on each partner knowing the other's strengths and weaknesses...their needs...

And then doing whatever is necessary to make sure those needs are met and their partner is successful.

And that's what I've been thinking about this morning...

What does it really mean to dance? Let's look at an example...

"The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, 

we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, we center on the interests and desires of the other. 

That creates a dance, 

particularly if there are three persons, each of whom moves around the other two. 

So it is, as the Bible tells us. 

Each of the divine persons centers upon the others. 

None demands that the others revolves around him. 

Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them. 

Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others. 

That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love."
Tim Keller -The Reason for God

A dance of joy and love...

A dance each of us is called to...

With God. And with one another.

Whenever I watch Zachary skate, my chest tightens with anticipation and I ache over such beauty...

And ultimately a prayer is whispered...

Please, dear God, someday I want to dance like that...with You.

But He's showing me that I don't have to wait until someday to dance...I can dance now...

With God. And with others.

For isn't dancing really about one-anothering?

For as long as I can remember, I have looked at dancing through the lens of how it would make me look.

But true dancing is based on making another look good...

Adjusting our actions and movements to their needs...

Doing all within our power to make them shine.

And yes, this comes with a price tag attached.

I have seen Zachary's calloused feet.

I have heard his pain through injury after injury.

I have watched him press on when it would have been easier for him to quit.

But when people see Zachary and Madi on the ice, dancing, they don't see all those things.

They see beauty and grace in a dance that takes their breath away.

So come with me dear one...

Find a partner, someone you can pour your love and delight into...someone you can rejoice in...

Someone whose needs you can meet.

For then you will truly be dancing...

Dancing the way God designed it to be...

To the glory of God and the blessing of others.

And you will take God's breath away!

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And now for your enjoyment...