Each day I wake up with a song of praise in my heart that automatically is expressed on my tongue. Joy explodes in every step I take throughout the day. Today we get our first guest speaker, Mark Anderson. He has 30 plus years behind him of global experience in evangelism, church-planting, being a pastor as well as the president of the Call to All organization. I know today was going to blow my mind at the truths God was going to pour out through this man.
One of my girls in the class, Kelly and I have the work duty of hospitality. We make sure the guests feel so welcome and have a comfortable stay. We clean and prepare their rooms, prepare snacks, make coffee and make lays for the guests. Mark Anderson’s home base is Kona, but he just returned less than 24 before from the Philippians. He arrive at our class and Kelly and I went up on stage and gave him the lay and gift basket. Then Aaron, our main leader, asked that we stay on stage and pray for Mark’s time teaching. Oh my goodness, I thought who am I to pray for this Godly man that has had traveled the world and has even been in leadership roles with Billy Graham! All I thought was ok God, your going to have to pull this off because I was trying to find anyway to get out of it! But it was so awesome and such an honor to be able to bless and encourage his time with our class. And wow. What he had to say was like a fire hose.
Many of you know my passion and love for dance. I have been on dance teams before and one of my biggest dreams was always to be an NFL cheerleader. Since I really started perusing my faith a year ago I began to feel differently about this dream of mine. I struggled with the question of if being a dancer for a pro football team would be representing my faith well. When it came down to it I knew my answer, but I didn’t want to give up my dream. In my heart I tried to compromise with the fact that I am purely doing it for my love of dance and performing and maybe I could even be an encourager and hold bible studies for girls on the team! It wasn’t until I was in the third round of the San Diego Charger Cheerleader tryouts that the Holy Spirit was so present in my heart. I began to look around at the girls left who were going for the 30 or so spots. They were beautiful, stunning girls complete with tiny little outfits, loaded on make up and many with their fake hair extensions. There were a few groups gossiping and others taking pictures trying to make these seductive faces. My heart sank and for the first time I thought, “What am I doing?” Would I even get along with these girls? Are these the type of girls that I want to have influencing me? Would I be strong enough to stick to my faith or would I want to fit in, because it always feels better when you fit in with the group. This was such a hard thing to have hit me. I loved dance, is this really the truth I’m feeling!? But I felt such a relief when my number wasn’t called to go onto the final round. Most of all my heart broke for those girls. I just hope and pray that their validation doesn’t come from their looks, being a great dancer, or getting any negative attention. I hope and pray they know how much the God of the Universe loves and adores them. So long story short, giving up that dream was such an emotional struggle and still is and I still have the desire at times but truly hope that I can soon find a way to dance that fulfills my desire and that also completely glorifies God. If you honestly want to follow Jesus there is a line. It is black and white. There is no gray space. I decided that I didn’t want to be wavering in the grey anymore, and in fact I wanted to get as far away from the line as possible.
God is totally moving in this place. He is always present of coarse but I’ve never felt it like this before. We start every class with worship. On the very first day of class during worship, one of the leaders came by my side. I thought she was going to pray for me or just stand next to me. She then leaned over and said, “God says that He gets extreme joy when you dance.” I was shocked, I had to have her repeat what she said to make sure that I heard her correctly. Tears began to uncontrollably stream from my face. She had no idea my passion for dance and the dreams I gave up and what a sensitive topic it was for me. God, The God, gets not only joy but extreme joy when I dance!?
If you just take one baby step toward Him, He will pull you up on His lap. He knows the desires of your heart. He will fulfill them and will never limit you with just what you want but pour out things you didn’t even know you wanted.
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