Monday, July 26, 2010

Dance Differently




We all dance differently, we have different national dances, different music we like to dance to. At different times we dance to different rhythms.

Some of us were even told it was wrong to dance!

Life is a dance.

Micah 6: 8 "and what does the Lord require of you. To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

This is the rhythm that has captured my life, this is the music that I want to dance to.

Mixed up in this verse is a rhythm, a rhythm that is good, a rhythm that is pure.

A multi layered rhythm that I choose to move my life to.

A rhythm of prayer, mission and justice.

That’s why I love 24-7 prayer. It’s a movement, a movement that moves to rhythm of prayer, mission and justice.

The Baseline

The baseline of this movement, this dance, I have chosen to enter is “prayer.”

Walking humbly is a walk of prayer. I may not be great at prayer but the more I tap out this base line in my life the better I get.

Prayer changes things. Prayer changed my life when I decided I would dance to it’s beat. That I would pray more than watch big brother!

Prayer is the beat of all we do, it’s dangerous, can alter the course of our lives, it is a wild, exciting rhythm that we need to dance to.

The Melody

Another layer to this rhythm is “Loving Mercy”

A rhythm of mercy is a rhythm of “mission.” I feel the beat of mercy on my own life and want others to feel it as well.

I want others to dance to the rhythm that has captured my heart.

Therefore I am compelled to go. I will go without, I will live wherever, I will sacrifice, I will push through I will allow the rhythm of mission to move and guide me.

We will dance to this rhythm wherever it takes us.

In Isaiah 6 we see the prophet move from the baseline of prayer and intimacy to the response of “Here I am send me” he let the rhythm move him.

The Harmony

Then I see another layer, another strand, “Act Justly” that strand is “Justice”.

Justice is not just a strand for hippies dancing around a pole in some forest to the beat of some weird African tribal drum.

Justice is an essential part of the Christians dance.

The strand that shows how to do what is right. To move right.

Here’s the justice part of the dance: Isaiah 58: 5-6

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to lose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yokeIs it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?. ”

So yes, we will dance, we will dance with all our might, we will move to this rhythm and we will dance to it wherever it takes us and whenever the Lord of the dance asks us to.

And we dance for the king and His kingdom with the hope that our dance ushers it into being.

1 comment:

Carla said...

that's beautiful Brian, thank you xc