A 24/7 way of being

I cannot dance. No really. I just can’t. Just ask the staff. Just last week I had the honorable distinction of having one of the lowest scores in our Just Dance competition. Yes, I did just say that. We had a Just Dance competition, and I lost miserably.

I don’t have anything against dancing. I actually love dancing. I have always wanted to move with grace and ease, but every time I try it just comes out looking something like a train wreck. Imagine the movement of a fish out of water crossed with the awkwardness of Frankenstein’s monster doing a bad Beyoncé and you have me dancing. I know. I just scarred you for life. Sorry about that.

I don’t know why I can’t dance. It isn’t because I haven’t tried. It just seems that what I imagine in my mind gets all crossed and mixed up by the time that it reaches my limbs, so much so that it is just better for everyone that I keep my dancing to a minimum and to myself. My dancing is so bad that you can imagine my chagrin when I read in Ephesians 5 that we are to go through life dancing. Wait! Paul didn’t say that. Or did he?

Actually, what Paul says is to go through life engaging in the practice of mutual submission. The Church is to go through life seeking to serve rather than seeking to be served. What is this other than dancing, the joining in with the divine dance in which God himself is engaged? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all moving about in a divine dance of mutual submission with one another, a dance of submission so beautiful that three become one. Because the Holy Spirit is in me, I am invited to join in the dance.

Here’s the trouble with dancing. I can’t dance; at least it isn’t pretty. The divine dance of mutual submission is perhaps one of the most difficult of dances. Its steps are deceptively simple. Yet their execution can be excruciatingly difficult. More often than not I find myself moving about somewhat out of step, making a scene and bringing shame upon myself and quite a bit of pain into the lives of others. I have stepped on my fair share of toes. . .and hands. . .and fingers. . .and the occasional face. Yes, that is really possible in this divine dance of mutual submission. Most days I get frustrated and want to give up, probably because it seems so unnatural, this divine way of dancing. Mutual submission is not the dance I would pick. I am much better at the Rebellion Rumba, the It’s All about Me Salsa, and I have learned to do a pretty mean Jabbing You Where It Hurts Jig. Yet, the call is not to these or any other dance that come so natural to me. The call is only to join the divine dance of mutual submission. What I am learning is that I am not called to dance alone. I am called to join the circle of those already dancing, the circle that includes the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As I join this circle I am discovering that I am not just part of the circle but that the circle is part of me, in me to be exact. When I slow down and just relax, surrendering to the dancing Trinity in me, then more and more the steps become much more natural. Who knows? It just might be that over time I learn that I really can dance.

A fellow traveler,

Blake

What’s my next step?

We encourage you to consider engaging in the following as a way of handing off faith in your family.

Model mutual submission: God invites us to join him in his life, a life of mutual submission. He uses us to invite others into this dance, starting with those in our families. We invite others by first modeling what mutual submission looks like. This week consider ways in which you might model mutual submission to your family members. This might be as direct as asking them what you might do to help them and then following through. It might also be indirect through the way you give up a planned activity for something they desire. You might also indirectly model this submission by seeking not to promote yourself but by being silent about yourself so that you might draw them out in conversation. Be creative in ways that fit your family. In it all, ask for the grace to submit in love and not out of duty.

We encourage you to consider engaging in the following as a way of deepening your own faith.

Ask God to teach you to be the Church: During this series we encourage you to wear a silicon wrist band with the phrase, “I am Church.” Use this band as a reminder of your identity and allow it to serve as a prayer prompt. Every time you see it, consider turning your mind to God and asking him to teach you how to be the Church.