Dancing in the Zulu culture is at the forefront of celebrations and just simply a way to make time pass. This month I spent the month living, working, and trying to understand Zulu women. There is a definite language and cultural barrier between me and my many new Zulu mamas and grandmas. But dancing needs no language.
Dancing has the ability to break down barriers and allows us to walk in a new way with the people around us. As I tried to kick my leg to my head in the traditional dance of the Zulu people, I broke down the barriers of the them and me mentality. It was simply all of us, as daughters of Christ, dancing and laughing in a circle. Dancing produced freedom in our walk together, a freedom to be goofy and try new things with each other.
My dance in Zululand was not just with my hosts, but also with God himself. The Lord and I danced through a tangle of lies and brokenness this month that required me to be sitting in a hut in the middle of the rural communities of South Africa.
Living in the KwaZulu-Natal province this month forced me to leave behind comforts that I had up until this point on the race, comforts of running water and a toilet that was more than a hole in the ground. Team changes at the beginning of the month also lead to me give up the comfort of the 5 people who had been my people and my community the first 4 months. The Lord and I danced round and round as I stepped out of my comfort zone and into all that life in a Zulu village had to offer.
As the Lord and I danced, I learned so much about the freedom that he had to offer; the freedom that I had been striving after for so many years, but always seemed just out of reach. Over the course of this month I learned that freedom comes the minute we accept the Lord as our Savior, and most often it is we, ourselves, who keep freedom at an arm’s length away.
This dance that I have been in with Jesus in search of my freedom has gone on for far too long, and I realized that when I stop trying to find my freedom and simply accept it, that is when the most beautiful dance with the Lord occurs. As I reflect back over the first 5 months of my race and dream about what is to come, I can’t believe what freedom I have been able to walk in and what freedom is still out there to dance in.
