My Dance Partner: a Backstory

Enjoy this preview of one of our devotions in our manuscript, Glory in Disguise: Experiencing God in Our Every Day by my darling poet friend Penny Mandeville and myself.

During a gathering with friends several years ago, I shocked them with my answer to an "icebreaker" question: 

If you could do anything other than what you currently do, what would that be?
What is your secret ambition?

To everyone’s surprise (including my husband’s), my answer was “to be a dancer.”  A dancer? Here I was . . .  a grandma, a teacher, a women’s Bible study leader in a conservative church and now a dancer?

Why, dancer? I think it must be the grace, the ease of movement, the freedom! I’m always jealous when I watch dancers moving so effortlessly across the floor to the rhythm of the music.

I’m too inhibited to try this now as an older adult. But I do remember back when I was a child how my dad taught us girls to dance the fox trot. The ballroom dances were nothing to that WWII generation of men. So as middle school girls, my sisters and I were whisked around the “ballroom” (a.k.a. our living room) with strength, yet grace and gentleness, by our dad. That was many years ago. 

Since my husband is not a “dancer” in any way, shape, or form, dancing hasn’t been a part of my adult life except for short spurts of “dance parties” with baby grandsons or polkas with my mom. So when John and I signed up for dance lessons in preparation for our son’s wedding, I ended up taking the lead more often than not. And the few times I danced at family weddings  with my brother Conrad (a strong dancer), it usually started out as a tug of war until I surrendered to his lead. Then he would whisk me around the floor effortlessly. 

I can’t help but think of my life in union with Christ as a dance. I have the Perfect Dance Partner dwelling within. He has perfect rhythm. He has a strong hold on me and knows all the steps, and He can actually execute them.

I often try to lead to get Him to go my way. But when I yield to Him moment by moment, day by day, we dance together as I let Him take me where He is going. He whisks me along in the way of His Spirit as the unique, gifted, “charming” person that He has created me to be! 

So as I yield to His life-giving flow, I experience …

skill beyond my skill!
love beyond my love!
words beyond my words!
 forgiveness beyond my forgiveness!
 fullness beyond my fullness!

What about you, my dear friend?  Are you experiencing the life of Christ in and through you as you? Or do you continue to struggle to take the lead?

Why not relinquish your will to His Almighty Self and experience the effortless movement of the dance of faith – life in the Spirit.

Prayer
O Loving Jesus, Indwelling Lord, teach me to not resist Your lead but to rather yield myself to You, as we dance together through every situation of my life, especially this one (name what you are going through and yield to HIM). In Your Almighty Name.  Amen.

The Dance
It’s time to surrender
It’s time to rejoice
It’s time to be thankful
That I am your choice.

I trust where you’ll lead me
As you reach out your hand.
Knowing where we’re going
Was always your plan.
       Penny Mandeville

Reflections
Put on some of your favorite praise music. Find an alone place with room to move and move to the music in the arms of the Lover of your soul. Feel yourself yielding to him. Then ask yourself,

Am I being whisked along in the way of the Spirit or am I trying to take the lead?
How can I yield to the Lord today in the circumstances that I find myself?

Journal your thoughts and prayer of surrender.

The rule is you have to dance a little bit in the morning
before you leave the house
 because it changes the way you walk out in the world.

Sandra Bullock