Dancing with the Spirit

                                                       

I once took ballroom dancing classes at Ric Seeling’s Dance Studio.  Ballroom dancing is different from the type of dancing we did when I was a kid.   In those days, the dances required no physical contact with a partner— I could basically “do my own thing”. Line dancing was also popular; to line dance I had to learn certain steps and perform a routine, but there was still no physical contact. Well, in ballroom dancing, one partner—almost always the man---has to lead, and the other partner has to follow.

  I was not exactly one of Ric Seeling’s star pupils.  My first problem, he said, was that I was trying to lead.  And even when I wasn’t actually leading, I wasn’t following either.

“You have to trust the lead,” he’d tell me. “But you want to analyze it.  You keep thinking, ‘Where’s he taking me?’ ‘Why does he want me to go there?’ Just trust the lead and keep moving in that direction until you feel the next lead.”

“Wait for the lead,” he’d tell me.  “Don’t try to anticipate the lead.  You may think you know where your partner is going to lead next, but he may do something entirely different.  Wait for the lead!”

Ric had certain terminology that he used to teach, and I was such a slow learner that he made me write down the terms.

First, there was the “Bubble,” an area of proximity to your partner. To understand the lead, you have to stay in your partner’s Bubble. If I got too far away from the Bubble, Ric would say I “went shopping,” (off doing my own thing.)

Next, I had to leave my fingertips “available” to receive directions, especially during turns.  If I let go, or if I grasped too tightly, I couldn’t receive the directions and wouldn’t know which way to turn.

He had to remind me to keep my chin up—to keep looking up and stop looking at my feet.

“Where do your feet go? Down!”  he’d say.  “Your feet know where to go.  Just keep looking up.”

Recently I was reading the daily lesson in Kathy Drake’s “Come unto Me” Study where Kathy compares the Spirit-filled life to a dance. Kathy wrote:

“A great dance partner can be trusted to lead you in joy, beauty, and grace if you follow his steps.  The Holy Spirit is not only the greatest dance partner of all, but He is also the choreographer.  He created the steps and knows how to lead you through the dance of life.  But you will have to learn to follow His lead.  It may take some practice to get the steps right, but if you listen carefully to His instruction and learn to rest in His embrace, you will know which way to go.  He can be trusted.”

It occurred to me as I read this that maybe I have trouble following the Holy Spirit’s lead just like I had trouble following the lead in dance class.

To follow the Holy Spirit’s lead, I have to stay in the Bubble…to stay close to Him through Bible Study and prayer. When I take time to quiet my heart and sit in the stillness, away from distractions, God speaks. He may use His still, small, inaudible voice—words that I hear clearly in my mind, though my ears hear no sound. He may send thoughts that can only be from Him because they are saturated in goodness, peace and holiness. I may feel a prompting, and urgency, a nudging towards some good work. A memory verse may pop into my mind. Or sometimes, as I’m reading a passage of Scripture (maybe one I’ve read dozens of times) I gain new understanding. It’s as if little light bulbs are flipped on in my brain as the Holy Spirit enlightens and illuminates the Word. I know I have heard from Him when His communication leads me to acts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Sometimes I tend to “go shopping,” though; I wander off in search of other things in life to delight, to entertain, to motivate, to fulfill me. But those things never satisfy for long, and I come away feeling empty.

Sometimes, I don’t leave myself available to His leading.  I may choose to cling to His Hand, enjoying my Bible study and prayer time, but refusing to go anywhere with Him. I may simply be unavailable, unwilling to follow Him and participate in the work He’s doing in the world. He may be nudging me toward a particular ministry, a particular good work, a particular act of kindness, yet I don’t go.

Sometimes I get ahead of the Holy Spirit. I think I know best, and I go off in my own direction, making decisions without first praying about them.

I tend to try to do things in my own power, to stop looking up to God. The dance of life would be so much easier, so much more graceful, if I would stop trying to tell my feet where to go, so to speak, and instead allow God to direct my steps and give me the ability to do what He asks me to do.

The patriarch Jacob was a man who desired, I believe, to do God’s will, but he seemed to have trouble allowing God to lead. Even before he was born, God planned for him to inherit the blessings which should have gone to his older brother Esau. But Jacob, whose name means “grasps at the heel,” or “he deceives,” didn’t want to wait for God’s lead.  He got ahead of God and schemed to make things happen.  First, he convinced his brother to exchange his birthright for a bowl of soup.  Then, when his father Isaac was blind and close to death, Jacob impersonated Esau and tricked his father into pronouncing a blessing upon him---the blessing that should have gone to Esau, the firstborn.  He had good intentions, but he anticipated God’s lead. All along God had planned for Jacob to have the birthright, but Jacob thought he had to manipulate circumstances to bring that about.

God had to teach him to stop trying to make things happen through trickery and just to trust.  Jacob was lonely, discouraged, dejected, suffering the consequences of his schemes and deception when God gave him the vision that we call “Jacob’s ladder,” angels ascending and descending a ladder that reached to heaven.  Jacob needed to stop looking at his own circumstance, stop looking at his own abilities, stop trying to figure out how to make things happen, and start looking up to heaven.

Just when we think the dance with the Spirit is going to be smooth and carefree because we’ve mastered a few basic steps, God has new patterns for us to learn.  Jacob spent a lifetime learning to let the Holy Spirit lead.

 Jacob’s dance with the Spirit was fraught with missteps and poor timing because he tended to rush headlong into decisions without first consulting God. Later in life, when Jacob had to finally face his brother Esau, Jacob did pray, but only after attempting to find his own solution. In a state of emotional turmoil, he divided his family into two groups, reasoning that if Esau attacked, at least one group would be safe. Genesis 32 tells how Jacob poured out his heart to God, confessing his unworthiness, admitting his fear, and reminding God of His promise.

“But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’” Gen. 32:12

Then Jacob proceeded to select gifts—peace offerings—to send to his brother.  Poor Jacob! He still believed that it was up to him to take the lead, to devise his own plan.

That night Jacob sent his wives, children, and possessions across the stream ahead of him.  Jacob was left all alone, and that’s when he and the Lord had their own pas-de-deux. Well, it was more like a wrestling match than a dance, but the result was that Jacob realized his dependence on God, yielded to God, and changed the way he related to God. And, as an indication of the drastic change in Jacob’s life, God changed his name to Israel, which various sources translate as “he struggles with God,” or “God’s warrior” or “God prevails,” or “soldier of God.” His new name was a reminder that he struggled with the Almighty and finally learned to follow God’s lead.

I’m ready to end the struggle, to RELAX and to trust God’s leading.  I’m ready to enjoy the graceful, exciting dance with the Spirit.  I’m ready to go where He leads, believing that His choreography, His plan, is the best plan.  Wherever we go together, I know I can rely on Him to strengthen and support me. I don’t know whether the music will be soft and tender or energetic and fast-paced, but I’m ready to trust that He will give me clear direction, if only I will wait for it.  I know that if I follow His lead, the dance will be beautiful, joyful, and elegant. How about you? Are you ready to dance?

 “These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” I Corinthians 2:10

Questions to consider:
1. Can you think of a time when you struggled with following the Spirit's lead?
2. How can you make yourself available to the prompting of the Holy Spirit?
3. Where do you sense that the Spirit is leading you today? Are you available? Are you relaxed in His Presence?

Rescued

“When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.” Psalm 91:15

Once while vacationing in the Caribbean, my husband and I visited a turtle farm.  I don’t have any particular affinity for turtles, but the Kemp’s Ridley caught my attention. (After all, he—or maybe she---and I are both “Kemps.”) I was curious about this little fellow, so I did some research

 The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle is the smallest, most endangered of all sea turtles. Life in the Gulf of Mexico and along its shores is a struggle for this little 30 inch, 100-pound marine animal.  Between April and July, females of breeding age return to the beach where they were hatched, most commonly along the Gulf Coast between Galveston, Texas and Tamaulipas, Mexico. After about 50 days, hatchlings emerge from the ping-pong sized eggs.  The hatchlings, measuring about an inch and a half long and weighing no more than half an ounce, then begin to scamper across the beach in a treacherous trek to the water.  As few as 1% survive to adulthood, and many don’t even make it to the water because they fall prey to vultures, frigate birds, and sand crabs. 

Though it’s no longer legal to hunt these turtles for food or boot material, their lives are in peril. They can become entangled in shrimp trawls and drown. Then there’s the loss of habitat as their nesting beaches are developed.

In April 2010 when Deepwater Horizon dumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, hundreds of Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles were smothering in oil.  The U. S. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries agents worked diligently to rescue, clean, and return these animals to the water.

In her book, The Great Ridley Rescue, (Sept. 1988. Mountain Press.p.180 ISBN 0-87842-229-3) Pamela Philips called this turtle the “heartbreak turtle.”  This name was coined by fishermen who saw turtles dying after being “turned turtle” (turned on their backs.)  The fishermen said they died of a broken heart.

I share more in common with the Kemp’s Ridley than a name.  I’ve been in that brokenhearted place, where my life has been “turned turtle.”  I’ve been in that place of helplessness, where my very survival was threatened.  Like the turtle, I needed someone to rescue me, to clean up the mess of my broken existence, and to return me to a functioning, happy, productive life.

I can tell you without a doubt that God did this for me. It was in my place of desperation that I came to know personally that “the Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) In my sorrow, I found unconditional love. In my state of rejection, I found a Savior who would never leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). In my desperation, I found that there is always a way out. By the power of God’s Word, through the work of His Holy Spirit, and with the help of His people, I was rescued.

During that season of broken-heartedness, there were lonely Sunday afternoons when I felt myself sinking into despair. Just when I thought I could stand it no longer, the phone would ring.

  “I was just checking on you,” the voice on the other end would say.  It was one of God’s emissaries, a Christian friend who had heeded the nudging of the Holy Spirit and picked up the phone. 

There were troubled evenings when I wondered what my future would hold.  Often, I’d get a message on the computer from an out-of-town friend. 

“God’s got a great plan for you,” she’d remind me.  “He’s going to take care of you.” My friend was another agent that God enlisted to carry His message of encouragement.

Sometimes God used His Word to comfort and strengthen me. Verses such as Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart,” gave me hope that one day I would have my heart’s desire.

The words of Isaiah, which Jesus quoted in the synagogue, were especially meaningful to me: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted…” Jesus had come to heal my hurt; I clung to those words.

For many months, I wrestled with the Lord, pleading with Him to ease my heartache and restore the broken relationship that had caused my grief.  Finally, one April evening, I stopped struggling. I put everything aside and spent time listening to the Lord.  I wrote in my journal: “I surrender.  God, have your way.  I trust You to do what is best.”  I yielded myself to Him and allowed Him to do the work He needed to do to restore me.

 Then, feeling at peace, I went about the business of checking my email and received the news that my husband of 24 years had filed for divorce. The broken relationship would not be mended. In one sense I was shocked, but in another sense, I knew that God had prevented me from receiving the news until I was ready to trust Him with my future. God cared for me in ways I would never have imagined, and when the time was right, I met the man who is now my faithful and loving husband.

Maybe you know what it feels like to be “turned turtle. There are a lot of folks in Baton Rouge who know firsthand what it’s like to have their lives turned upside down.

In August 2016, 20 inches of rain inundated the Baton Rouge area, and thousands were washed out of their homes.  Suddenly, people who were used to being independent and self-sufficient found themselves homeless and helpless as the floods overtook their dwellings, soaking all their earthly possessions in mud and dirty water.

For some, their cries may have literally echoed the words of the Psalmist:

 “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.”  Psalm 69:1

Yet a couple of weeks after the flood, Christians who had been displaced by the disaster gathered in church to testify to God’s deliverance from the flood waters.  God had mobilized His forces to rescue His people.  The “soldier” He called up for duty might have been a fisherman with a boat coming to rescue a stranded family. It might have been a truck driver on the interstate who carried strangers through the rising flood waters.  It might have been a clean-up crew with shovels and buckets or an “angel” with a hot meal. God hears the prayers of His people.  He doesn’t always spare us from hardships, but He brings us through our troubles and delivers us safely to the other side.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”  Psalm 34:19 ESV

Meditate on Psalm 91 and Psalm 34, and be assured that even when you find yourself “turned turtle,” the Lord can and will rescue you.

“Father, I thank You and praise You because You are all-powerful and are fully able to rescue me in every desperate situation. I thank You that You are a very present help in time of need.  You don’t always answer my prayers in the way that I expect, but you always do what is best.  Help me to trust you, and help me to be obedient when You call me into service to help someone else who needs to be rescued.”