#dancingstandingstill

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved you and offered Himself as a sacrifice for you, a pleasing aroma to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Awakening to the reality of worship that is love. Jesus offered Himself fully as a sacrifice for our atonement. This offering of pure love and obedience was a pleasing aroma to God, an act of God-honoring exultation. We are beckoned to imitate Christ in this way, to follow His example. Jesus Himself says, “Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13). When we love others in this greater way, laying down our lives for them, forsaking our own comforts, wants, reputations, and possessions, we engage in worship. This offering of sacrificial love is a pleasing aroma to God. We sing, “Day and night, night and day, let incense arise,” our hearts crying out that the Living God be praised. Incense arises from the greater love, the sacrificial love, of a pure heart. Jesus glorified the Father by giving His life in love. And we, because we are God’s beloved children, are called to imitate the love and obedience of this man, Jesus. 

Worship with song and dance and prayer and thanksgiving.

But worship also with love of a greater kind: 

A love that lays down one’s life for others. 

Through the power of His Sovereign Spirit, the gap between that which is secular and that which is sacred diminishes. Jesus gives us context to live in holiness in the ordinary things of this life. The commonalities of washing dishes, driving a car, smiling, working, reading a good book, eating, conversing with another, or whatever task or circumstance is before us, hold the potential to be sacred. 

Oswald Chambers says that “a spiritually vigorous saint never thinks of his life as being divided into the secular and the sacred. He sees every situation in which he finds himself as a means of obtaining a greater knowledge of Jesus Christ” (My Utmost for His Highest). 

Let’s be honest, our lives are filled with days that are often mundane, scheduled, and at times, boring. We wait anxiously always for the next moment, experience, event, season to see what the Lord has in store. But I want to encourage you (and myself!) with this truth: The Lord has more for your present, ordinary moments. Every minute you walk this earth holds the capacity for holiness and revelation through Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can know Christ in each moment of our lives whether we are having dinner with our friends, working at our desk alone, or sharing the Good News with a stranger.

Zechariah 14:20-21 reads, “On that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with these words: HOLY TO THE LORD. And the cooking pots in the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the basins used beside the altar. In fact, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. All who come to worship will be free to use any of these pots to boil their sacrifices.” 

What if we recognized that our lawn mowers, pencils, tea bags, computers, and cooking pots could be sacred? These seemingly ordinary things can be holy unto the Lord. How differently would we live if we understood that the Holy Spirit of the Living God dwells in our midst (in us!) daily? The Spirit is on the move even in the mundane. 

Don’t wait for the next church service, worship meeting, or quiet time to pursue fellowship with the Lord or to worship Him. You have full access to intimacy with the God of the universe right now. Turn your eyes to meet Him here.

Show me that Your glory dwells in the ordinary. 

The Relentless Pursuer of your heart beckons. Love runs hard after the locked away places of your deepest self–your fears, dreams, desires, secrets, insecurities. 

When we’ve given up on ourselves and all hope seems lost. When we’re tired and burdened with fears and insecurities. When we question and doubt, fumbling in what seems to be endless darkness. When others fail us, leaving us hurt, empty, wanting. When our hearts burst with the ache of longing...He comes for us, even still. 

Wherever you are, wherever you go, He’s coming for you. 

You were a dream.

A vision that rose from the deep love of a Creative Heart.

You were created, formed, shaped.

The delicate intricacies of you were crafted and molded.

Beautifully. Wonderfully.

Made in the image of the One Who creates.

Formed in the likeness of He Who is full of endless creativity.

You bare the mark of your Creator.

The Lord Himself Who formed you has placed in your heart a creativity that reflects His own.

He has given you eyes to see and behold.

Ears to hear and be moved.

Hands to shape, form, make.

A heart that swells in response to beauty.

Each of us holds the capacity to express.

You were made to create.

In different forms, colors, avenues, mediums.

Each was made in the image of God the Creative One.

You were made to create.

To reflect the beauty, glory, wonder of the One Who made you.

So move your hands.

Express the Love, the beauty, the fascination that comes as you gaze upon the Lord.

What you hold in your heart matters.

For you have been given a meaningful perspective.

What you hold in your heart is needed.

For you have been given a uniquely personal creativity.

So move your hands.

You who were made by the Glorious Artist Himself.

This is a bit late. But here is a small post of gratitude and admiration to the lovely woman who designed my blog. 

❇ Lauren Clawson ❇

An abundant and joyful giver, always. A committed and passionate dreamer. A faithful and diligent servant. A beautiful musician with powerful songs to share. A fierce companion whose love is deep and abounding. A bold proclaimer and dedicated pursuer of Truth. A hungry and fiery lover of Jesus. A wonderfully creative and exceptionally talented artist. 

There is a hard-found sweetest to the untamed nature of surrender. Here in this place of utmost exposure we are not what we think of as “safe.” We are raw, bare, completely vulnerable. We are in danger of seeing the depths of our brokenness, the fullness of our weakness and failure. We risk feeling the overwhelming weight of our need, our desperation, the hunger that gnaws deep within. We are caught off guard by ourselves.

Standing before ourselves in the pure light of depth-knowing, we are uncovered. Naked we know coldness and shame. Feelings of inadequacy run deep. We fear abandonment, neglect, tiring those around us. These are the self doubts and terrors we are invited to believe.  

But the hard-found sweetness comes when we resist the lies, the fears, those things that feel true, and begin to understand and believe His good intentions, His faithful heart.

We call it a leap of faith, this trusting, but it really is no leap. We don’t conjure up strength in arduous effort to jump from here to there. It’s really a falling: a relaxing of muscles, a closing of eyes, a backward releasing of self into Hands unseen.

In surrender, we are unveiled. Hair pushed out of faces, eyes lifted. Seen. Felt. Known. We are fully exposed, yet completely understood, accepted, wanted. That Gentle Voice whispers those honey-balm words of affirmation, restoration, forgiveness, and redemption over our broken hearts. And we are invited into the warmest, truest, most wholesome Love.