It’s time to dance again.
After more than a year away, my dance group is planning to begin meeting again next week to work on a new project. (We actually had planned to start this past Tuesday but the almost three feet of snow that fell over two days delayed us.) We did manage to do some outdoor work this summer and have multiple dancers submit their own videos which one of our talented leaders edited together and presented to the congregation.
While I was deeply grateful for that opportunity, I’m excited to begin again. To start fresh and see what grows from our efforts. It would certainly be easier to wait a while longer. We will be faced with weather difficulties, distancing, and masking requirements. But sometimes you just have to push forward despite obstacles.
Just as the sun pushes above the horizon each day, I’m ready to rise again and begin to live. The song that I felt like God gave us for our next project is from Maverick City Music. It’s one of my favorite worship songs I’ve heard in a long time and it’s filled with words and imagery that excite my soul and inspire me to move.
Each sunrise is a new day, a new chance. His mercies are new each morning and that means I can leave the failures and griefs of yesterday behind.
In Matthew 6: 33-34 Jesus says
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
I don’t need to drag the fears, and scars of the last year into this new one. I’m not suggesting we deny the pain and grief we’ve experienced, but that we refuse to be encumbered by it. There are still some serious decisions to be made and emotional hurt to be worked through. But I do that free rather than weighed down.
There has always been something so redemptive to me about a sunrise. Because no matter how long or dark the night, the sun always rises. We may travel through the valley of the shadow of death, but the light of life always appears, casting away the darkness.
I don’t know if the next year will be more or less difficult than the last, but I want to worship my way through it, whether in joy or tears.
It’s time to dance again.
” Though the storms may come
And the winds may blow, I’ll remain steadfast
And let my heart learn when You speak a word
It will come to pass
Great is Your faithfulness to me
Great is Your faithfulness to me
From the rising sun to the setting same
I will praise Your name
Great is Your faithfulness to me”
-Maverick City Music
Ah, dancing…
I danced down the produce aisle
collecting looks of pity,
pirouetting all the while,
and singing “I Feel Pretty”.
Barb turned a lovely shade of red
when faced with this surprise,
and quickly turned away her head
and rolled, so hard, her eyes
that I was made so sore afraid
that they’d stick that way,
but to rest my fears were laid
and thus they did not stay,
so I finished up the song
which had gone on far too long.
Yes, it really happened.
I’ll have to check out that group! I’ve never heard of them. I love that the sun rises and sets every day. Beauty to bookend us like a hug from our Redeemer.
Some thing about dancing sets you free. No one knows what the future holds but with God as our dance partner it will be awesome. Visiting from fmf #16
“Each sunrise is a new day, a new chance. His mercies are new each morning and that means I can leave the failures and griefs of yesterday behind.” What a beautiful and powerful reminder! Thanks for sharing.
I think the ability to worship your way through this year is in a sense breaking through the darkness as the sun!