Dance With Me?

    There’s this cheesy movie that I love.  I used to think that I loved it because it was the picture of the feminine heart coming alive.  But today as I sat with Jesus talking about this dance that He has led me in,  I realized something.  I love the movie, “Strictly Ballroom” because parts of it  represent, me.

     The movie starts out with a dancer who wants to dance his own steps.   Everyone is bound by the dance federation steps.  They don’t want to break the rules and dance outside what the federation says is allowed.  Scott is unlike the others.  He wants to be free in dance but cannot find a partner who will comply.  So he dances alone, that is until Fran shows up.

      She appears on the scene, inexperienced, looking like “frump girl”.  Timidly she looks at Scott and says, “I want to dance with you, your way.”

      Scott begins to take her one step at a time.  Though she knew some of the basics, this was different.  There was much she didn’t know.  Therefore she gave herself over to him to lead  and teach her the way of the dance.

     With each dance lesson you see a little more of “frump girl’s” guises disappear.  The more she dances in the arms of Scott, surrendered to His lead, the more her beauty unfolds.  First she loses her oversized glasses, then the outlandish hairstyle, her clothing changes, and her complexion clears up.  Little by little Fran’s hidden beauty spills out as she learns the way of the dance.  By the end of the movie she is absolutely stunning.

      I see parallels that speak to something inside me.  Jesus wants to dance His steps with me.   For too many years I have been bound by my religious activity for Him.  I have been traveling down a path of “pleasing God”.  I didn’t trust that I could just “be” in His embrace.  He invites me to abandon the law and learn to live in the moments of life with Him, trusting His work in me to be enough.  

      He comes to me and extends the invitation.  “Jewel, will you dance with me?”  “I want to dance my way.”  “Will you trust me?  “Will you dance with me?”

     I put my hand in His and the dance begins.  He starts out teaching me the steps of accepting His love.  As He reveals His thoughts towards me the guises I had established begin to drop away.   No longer in need of my performance giving me value, I begin to enter in to who He tells me I am.  His love carries me to places I have never dreamed and awakens me to truths I have never known.

     It all began with an invitation.  “Dance with me?” Jesus asked.  “Yes, Jesus, I will dance with you”, I reply.   He says to me, “Put your hand in mine, follow my lead, step where I take you, rest in my embrace.”  “Don’t try to implement your own steps.”  “Trust ME with the dance.”

     In the beauty of the dance, something profound is happening inside of me.  There’s a settledness finding it’s way in me as I am being changed.  Old things that once held me captive are falling off as He beckons me to rest in His arms that hold me close. The beauty of Him in me is being revealed and I am undone.  

     This has been unlike anything I have ever experienced before.  He has swept me off of my feet and I am ruined for the ordinary.  This fierce love that I have found consumes me.  I am captivated by the gaze of my dance partner and He is captivated with me.

     To each of us He extends the invitation.  “Will you dance with me?”  There are no two dances alike.  The dance of living in the beauty of the Lord is tailor made to each person.  If you will but put your hand in His and allow Him to teach you the dance of love, He will.  

     He’s had his eye on you.  His gaze has found you and He seeks you out.  With every fiber of His being He longs to love you into the dance of His arms.  What say ye, will You dance His steps?

©copyrighted:  2008  Julie L. Todd