It's time to dance!

As I sat listening to my favorite song from Hillsong, and as I sung the words about God’s love, His power, and the beauty of His presence..... I could not help but just start dancing. How could I sit still? It was impossible. So there with my dogs beside me....we danced. It wasn’t pretty... oh, but it was freeing. I knew heaven was dancing with me.

I find myself dancing with praise many times throughout the day. Sometimes on my morning runs I run with my arms up in the air as I am just feeling God’s freedom. In fact someone asked me the other day, out of all the hurdles this year brought, what stood out to me the most? My reply? “I learned how to dance.”

To me dance is all about the heart. The heart is where the Lord engages us in an intimate exchange of love, conversation, communion and fellowship. We are drawn into His presence...He is writing in the chapters of our lives. Everyday I wake up I can hear Him saying “Lisa, will you dance with me today?”

It is so easy to get our focus on things that take us away from that presence. I heard someone say one day “It’s so easy to get caught up in the ministry and get our eyes off of the Master.” What can keep me close to you Lord? How can I walk through this journey of unknowns and “unexpecteds”? ....I hear His voice gently reminding me....”Lisa...remember the dance.” He is my eternal dance partner.

I want to be like David. He was a man after God’s own heart. He danced before the Lord with all his might. He celebrated before the Lord. He habitually ran into the presence of God and his dancing resulted in amazing ministry...including killing a giant! I think that is so cool!

I am learning that my quiet time with the Lord is where my dancing shoes begin their journey. How else can I learn more about the Lead in my life if I am not spending time with Him? So this year....I learned to focus on that Lead. And an exciting adventure has been the amazing result of our dance together. I have learned that when I dance with Him I see God accomplish more than I ever dreamed for, asked for, or imagined. (Eph 3:20) It has been through this dance that I am learning about having a heart of devotion to God and prioritizing my alone time with Him. My quiet time alone with God is at the heart of the dance with Him. It’s where I engage in the most precious parts of the dance - communion, prayer, reading His word, surrender, and committment. It is where God helps me find my purpose again. (Ever felt like you have lost your purpose?)

My greatest challenge this year in the dance has been surrendering to the Lord on those very difficult days. Those days when there are things that happen I cannot possibly wrap my mind around. And this year my life has been full of those days. I specifically remember when the Doctor told me my Mother had cancer.....I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I couldn’t breathe. All I could hear was a whirrring sound in my ears, and then there it was.....that still small voice, my dance partner, telling me to let Him take the lead and for me to “be still and know who He was....” Psalms 46:10. I could hear Him saying to me “Lisa your precious life is a dance with me.....even in this situation...we can dance.” He would pick me up and dance with me, only this dance I would be in His arms. I have been in His arms a lot this year. And I have to tell you, my most amazing dances have been when I am hurting the most and I am in His arms..... because I am completely surrendered to Him taking the lead.

This year I have begun to truly understand how important devotion is when it comes to the dance with my Savior and how it has led me to complete surrender. I have learned about the importance of my quiet time with Him. I have learned the importance of making decisions and resolutions from the truths I have seen in God’s Word. His promises are true! He will not leave me on the dance floor alone!

As the writer of Ecclesiastes said, “There is a time...to dance.” This has been one of the hardest years of my life, but I learned how to dance.....that makes it the best year of my life. My time was this year....and who would have thought through one of the darkest times in my life.....I learned how to dance?

It is my prayer that no matter where you are in this life....if you are in the most wonderful place, or the darkest....your dance partner awaits! Embrace, and surrender to His love and follow His lead. You will truly dance....a dance that will change your life forever.

Shall we dance?