There’s a scene in the animate movie, The Prince of Egypt, where Moses arrives at the Midianite camp and is invited to a party. Moses is sitting there taking it all in, but hesitant to become too involved. After all, he just killed a man, ran away from home, and was living in a desert with strangers. Jethro (the father of Moses’ future wife), sings a song and tells Moses he must learn to join the dance.
A similar scene played out last night, while attending a Women’s Day party in Fier, Albania.
More on that in a moment…
After the speaker shared her message for Women’s Day, Lauren, my teammate, and I got up to share part of our testimony. Our days in Albania had been busy, so I hadn’t prepared. However, as I spoke, the words began flowing and I felt so clearly that my words needed to be about finding identity in who God says we are.
Earlier that day, Team Seetaram Sandwich made gifts for the women – lavender and chamomile sugar scrubs, simply packaged in zip-loc baggies. We made water colored cards and handwrote a word on each – redeemed, beloved, lovely, cherished, treasured, worthy. These words describe us, not because of what we’ve been told by the world or what we tell ourselves, but because God calls us redeemed, beloved, cherished, treasured and worthy. If he didn’t think so highly of us, he wouldn’t have sent us his Son.
I think it can be easy to define ourselves by our experiences, circumstances or struggles. In my moment of being unprepared to speak, it was easy for me to think I had nothing important to say and that I should rush through to “get over with it”. God had other plans that night and reminded me that even when we have negative thoughts, we are still redeemed. Even when we feel we’ve messed up, we are still beloved. Even when we’ve been told our opinions don’t matter, we are cherished. Even when our confidence fades, we are treasured. And when we feel undervalued and unappreciated, we are still called worthy.
Onto the dance…
After speaking, it was time to party. The Albanians here love to dance. With music over the speakers, the ladies joined hands in the center of the room and moved their feet and hands in accord. I was studying the footsteps, when an older lady beckoned and grabbed my hand to join the dance. I was, of course, hesitant, just as Moses. I was in a new culture, didn’t understand the language and had just met most of these women. As I started moving my feet in the circle, the older woman encouraged me and saying, “mer” which means good. The small encouragement from her, kept me motivated to keep trying. In fact, each time I tried to sit down, I was grabbed by the same women, encouraging me to keep learning the dances.
Moses also joined in the dance, and by the end of the song he marries Jethro’s daughter.
While I didn’t get married by the end of the song, I did fell like part of their church family. We had been in Albania for less than two weeks, but the people here made us feel like we’ve known each other for a long time. And they love to give kisses!
In my hesitancy, again I remembered that I am called redeemed, beloved, lovely, cherished, treasured and worthy. I ended the night with a group of women following my dancing. If I hadn’t joined the dance, I would have missed out on a wonderful experience.
