The Dance of FAITH: Moving with His Life-giving Flow

I would like to close this series on faith with an image that helps me when I think of living the “yet not I but Christ” life.

A few years ago, my husband and I were at some friends’ house. This couple liked to gather miscellaneous people who knew them but not each other. True to form, they asked a great icebreaker question. The particular question that evening was,

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

Don’t laugh but, immediately to my husband’s great surprise, my answer was, “I would want to be a dancer.” The grace, the movement, the freedom! Now you have to know that I’m too inhibited to even try this in real life.

But I do remember my dad who taught us 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” (aka our living room) with strength, yet grace and gentleness, by our dad. But that was many moons ago.

Since I married someone without a natural sense of rhythm, dancing hasn’t been a part of my adult life except for short spurts of “dance parties” with baby grandsons. So when we took lessons in preparation for our son’s wedding, I ended up taking the lead more often than not. And the few times I danced with my brother Conrad (himself a strong dancer), it usually started out as a tug of war till I surrendered to his lead.

I can’t help but think of my life in union with Christ as a dance. I have the Perfect Dance Partner. He has a strong hold on me and knows the way the dance goes and He knows the steps. I often try to lead and 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, whisking me along in the way of His Spirit!

Oh what skill beyond my skill! What love beyond my love! What words beyond my words! What fullness beyond my fullness!

What about you, my dear friend? Are you experiencing the life of Christ in and through you as you?

Have you relinquished your will to His Almighty Self? Or do you continue to struggle to take the lead? There is no reason to not experience the rest that is your birthright as a child of God.