Alright. Full honesty? I expected this blog to go something along the lines of “surrendering my pride to give glory to God in all circumstances” or “pushing through the hard things out of love, because that’s what Jesus would do”. Don’t get me wrong, both of those are great lessons, and definitely lessons I have experienced more fully than ever before while I’ve been on the race, but it’s just not quite what I’ve learned from dance ministry.
For one week, my team spent every day learning 4 minutes of high energy choreography that future missionaries here at Hope Mountain will use as part of their curriculum for their youth ministries. We danced to the song Alive by Hillsong Worship (it’s Spanish title is Vivo Estás), and our choreography came complete with jumps, kicks, and rolls all depicting how the Lord has freed us forever from our sin.
I walked into our week dreading the obvious horrors of synchronized motion and expressive hand signals. I am proud to say that I walked out of the week with knees full of gravel pock-marks from a particularly complex 8 count, and the biggest smile on my face from the thrill of praising the Lord in a new way.
So you wanna know what I really learned from dance ministry?
Dancing is so much fun.
WHOA.
MIND. BLOWING. Right?
But here’s the thing; 9 months ago, Annie Bingham would never have said that. She would have been so caught up in the risk of looking foolish, that she would have missed the blessing of glorifying God in a new way. 9 months ago, I would have let fear keep me from the beautiful opportunity to not only walk, but DANCE for JOY in the freedom the Lord has given me.
What a wonderful gift it is to drop my pride down at the foot of cross and lift my arms in praise to the One who has freed me from my iniquity. What a blessing it is to cast my fears into the proverbial fire, and do a high kick in the Holy Name of the Lord. Who am I that the Highest King would bless me with a body to spin, legs to step, arms to wave, and yet I deny an opportunity to praise him?
Psalm 150 verse 4 says to “Praise him with tambourine and dance”. Take that as poetic if you’d like to, but I will take this verse as an invitation. There are so many wonderful ways to worship the Lord, and I don’t want to miss out on any of them any longer.
If you’d like to see videos of Team Mesa dancing, stay tuned! There is, in fact, a professional recording. Hope Mountain’s wonderful videographer Jesiel is working to edit it probably as you’re reading this post! I’ll do my best to either post a copy on my blog, or snatch a link for you to watch it on YouTube. If you just cannot wait to catch a sneak peek of me rolling in gravel, check out @hope4dr on Instagram. There may or may not be some clips already posted…
All credit for Choreography goes to the lovely Jaime (fun fact: she’s married to Hessiel!). You can check out her Instagram @thedancingmissionary to see more of her work as well!
