Dance like nobody can see ya

So I don't dance like I used to...
I used to hang out with my friend Doug who was the lead singer/guitar player for The Suns of Jubal. They were a local reggae band in the Hamptons during the mid 80's -90's. Doug was a full-on White Rasta, waiting for the return of Jesus.

I had long sun-bleached hair then, and wore ( like we all did) beads and strings, jingly-things and ripped jeans. I'd go and just dance all by myself, and just get lost...

But something happened and I stopped dancing. We all do, don't we? We privately tap the steering wheel and sing in our cars. We might shake what our mamma's gave us when no one is around. But do we break out like our souls really can? Why not, what happened? I think it's because we're too concerned with what the world thinks, and less concerned about what God thinks.

Not my kid. She just dances, wild and free...and accessorized from head to toe.

This year I resolve to dance wildly again...and here is the first dance lesson;

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 3-5

I once read that there is not a box that man can build which Christ alone cannot shatter upon which He can build a dance floor to celebrate life.

I always wanted to be a dancer. I watched Solid Gold Dancers and even bought  the Denny Terrio Learn to Disco Dance album with my paper route money when I was in 7th grade. I had a book with footprints. I was teaching myself. Now I am letting the Lord of the Dance teach me.

Care to join me in the dance party? This one goes on forever.

Mr. T and the Pearl of Cheap Price

Like all kids Hannah has chosen her favorite Christmas present right out of the gate: a fist-full of cheap Mardi Gras beads that my brother placed in a treasure chest he made for my oldest daughter Olivia.

Every day she teeters over to the chest, looks in and points with absolute joy in her heart that indeed, the beads are still there!

...and then Hannah proceeds to put on each stand, one at a time, and then do a little dance of joy...

Like the man who found the treasure chest and the other who found the pearl of Great Price, she has placed all of her attention and affection on one Gift.
...have you? Do you still peer into the eyes of Christ with the same wonder, love and praise as you did that first Christmas Morning when the Holy Spirit revealed the King in all his splendor?

bullet proof collar or Pope-mobile?

 I tend to go to places alone alot...dropping off furniture, clothes, food, carseats. Now the places I go to are safe compared to where my friends go...Afghanistan, the Meth-Belt of Kansas City MO..etc. But still...

Sometimes I get freaked out before I go, but I always pray...and wear a collar. Why?

Well, collars are meant to remind me that I am yoked to Christ. I wear them on these runs to remind myself that Jesus came into my neighborhood to get me. I don't wear them for anyone's benefit. They are not a fashion statement nor a badge of anything I have earned.

But I have to be honest when I do solo-runs I wear them to put the folks I'm ministering at ease and to let them see a ambassdor of Christ  in their neighborhood getting dirty....and I also think that someone might think twice about jumping me.

How stupid is that? Did they think twice about anything when they killed Christ? Have the countless martyrs been spared anything because of their affiliation with Jesus? Did Jesus promise we would live like Holy Bubble Boys?

Of course not.
As we enter into the last week of anticipation of celebrating the event of God making a solo run (well, Trinitarian run I guess) into the world, let us not forget that He left His credentials at home (see Phillipians 2).

Are you going into these places? Christ did.