“We are above all things loved—that is the good news of the gospel…To come together as people who believe that just maybe this gospel is actually true should come together like a people who have just won the Irish sweepstakes.”
—Frederick Buechner in The Longing for Home: Recollections and Reflections
Awkward and clumsy, our feet are too big for our legs and words mumble-flop out of our mouths as if our tongues have been anesthetized. While the “popular” kids are dancing, we fully expect to be left sitting on cold folding chairs. But this time it’s different. The Lord of the Dance has invited us to an eternal celebration in His honor. And he didn’t ask us to come and sit on the sidelines – He called us to be dancin’ fools at His party.
We are a people who admittedly and rightly deserve rejection – but instead, we are loved extraordinarily and eternally. The psalmist declares that this love is better than life itself. As we grow to know this love, we long for time with the Lover of our souls whose song of grace and truth makes all the earth sway in worship. We jump. We sing really loudly. We raise our hands. We lie awake at night thinking about all the ways He amazes us. Finding ourselves deeply satisfied by His love, we sing songs of celebration.
Johan Sebastian Bach was once asked how he could play so beautifully. He replied that he didn’t play the music; it played him. In the same way, the follower of Christ–the beloved and forgiven child of God–lives a life of worship moved by the Spirit of God Himself living within. It is the Spirit that teaches us to dance despite our big feet and clumsy nature. As we forget ourselves and see Him more clearly, this jubilant expression is less and less an event and more a way of life.
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