I.can’t.dance.
Just ask my sister, who can “feel the rhythm” and dances flawlessly while having a blast doing it…and while I watch from the sidelines.
Ask my friend, who graciously asked me to join her in a choreographed Indian dance years ago and realized how robotic my legs were.
While I appreciate the beauty of the moves, dancing just didn’t come naturally to me.
Maybe I’m too self-conscious and can’t let myself go..
Maybe I’m concerned that I’ll look undignified…
But, you know where you might find me moving just a little?
At church.
Wowza, you get that guitar strumming, that keyboard playing, and that angelic voice on the microphone, I’m belting out those incredible lyrics with the rest of the crowd…
and I’m moving…right there in the middle of the rhythm and in the powerful presence of God.
I may not be on beat, but that doesn’t bother me.
Hope they don’t catch my moves on the big screen, but if they do, that’s okay, too.
Because I’m not doing it for them.
It’s all for my audience of One.
That’s how King David felt when, after being crowned, he decided to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem.
This was the “ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark.” 2 Samuel 6:2
The King was excited because God’s Presence was there! He was rejoicing!
Once he sacrificed an offering, what was his next order of business?
DANCE!! With all his might!
Did people notice? You better believe it!
Did it bother some? Yes!
Did it bother him that it bothered them? Not one bit.
His wife, Michal, despised David’s actions in her heart. Look at his response when he was confronted:
“‘It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel- I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes…'” 2 Samuel 6:21-22
David’s dancing was in response to a faithful Father who had never left him…
~alone with sheep in the open pasture with an intimidating bear and lion~pinned against a wall by a crazed King Saul
~abandoned and unforgiven after a moral failure
~defeated by his enemies
That response triggered something in his heart that electrified his bones and moved his legs.
All for an audience of One.
When you are in the Presence of God, there is a pulsating rhythm that beats inside of you that cannot be explained with words.
It’s not just the harmony and the nice lyrics. It’s the flood of gratitude and wonder that a God this big cares about little me…and He loves me and HAS NEVER LET ME DOWN and NEVER will.
It’s called worship, and it’s what we were created to do. So, yes, dancing before the Lord does come naturally for me.
Here’s my reason to dance:
~ a recent healing to my back
~ God’s provision this week
~ Safety as we travelled
What’s yours?
So, let’s get out there and dance, dance, dance like no one else is watching…except the One who really matters.
~Elizabeth (Betsy)
*Photo by Javy Luzania on Unsplash.com
