a new dance

Posted: December 4th, 2009 | Author: Serena Woods | Filed under: life | 11 Comments »

Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. -Philippians 3:2

Something that I’ve learned over the past several years is that you cannot have enough self-control to perfect your Christianity. The realization is heart breaking, at first.

Every once in a while, I get asked to prove my worth. To list the steps I’ve taken and provide evidence of God’s grace and restoration. There is a pressure to refine my appearance so that others can say, ‘She’s doing this or that.’ ‘God has obviously blessed her here. Look at these credentials…’

One thing that I am most thankful for is the realization that destroyed my sense of self-accomplishment. I learned that I cannot do this on my own and, in trying, I was trying to gain independence from a God I was not made to be emancipated from. He gifts me with what I was reaching for all along and He did it when I realized I couldn’t. You don’t realize you can’t until you are at your worst and are incapable of making it right.

Until I came to that point, I had no idea that I had deep roots of selfishness and conceit. I had been able to keep that part of me under control and dress in the cheap fabric of self-righteousness. When those roots surfaced in my life, I had no choice but to accept the damaged appearance and spend time watching Jesus clean out the depths of my heart.

My life, whether seen or not, is the healing dance of a crippled child. He holds my twisted legs straight and lets me dance on His toes. His feet moving me about. His spin catching my hair. He sings to me and I sing along. I worship Him from my depths. The depths I hid with my self-control. I give Him my worst and He shows me how to worship Him there.

The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. -Philippians 3:3

Every once in a while, I get praised for my heart. They see me dancing and hear my song and they remark at the beauty. I’m telling you, it’s not me you are seeing. It’s my Father. I’m dancing on His toes, remember. I’m singing a song He taught me. It’s not me. The sin you saw was me, the dance you see is Him.

Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness. -Philippians 3:8-9

There will always be those who want something more than the dance of praise. They won’t accept you unless you’ve earned a diploma from their school. But, I’m saying, forget about the way you look to others. Feel His feet under yours, His grip on your hands. Lean back, shut your eyes and let Him spin you around in a song of praise. Think about what that must look like to Him…

| Tags: Philippians

---