I have now been traveling for 6 months and
if there is one thing that is evident it is that God loves to be entertained.
God loves entertainment just like you and I. That is probably where we get the
desire for it (since we are made to be like him). Also, God loves to delight in
His children just like any proud parent does. Have you ever seen a proud parent
stand their toddler up in the middle of the living room and turn on music and
say “Dance, Dance” and when the child finally does it the whole room goes wild
and everyone smiles and claps for the child? Well I have come to the
realization that is what God is doing with me. The whole race He has been
figuratively standing me up in the living room in front of Him and His Angels
and telling me to dance.
I am sad to say that I cannot sing, for
anything and those of you who know me definitely know this. God just did NOT bless me with that talent, now does
that stop me from singing, Nope! But it does make me feel like I am not worshiping
God to the best of my abilities. While I know some of you are thinking “you are
supposed to worship God in all you do” yes, I understand that but that isn’t
what I am talking about. I am talking about coming before the Lord in an
intimate setting and offering up a gift to him that he first gave to us.
On multiple occasions I have had squad mates
and leaders tell me that they see visions of me dancing before the Lord and
that God was telling them to tell me to dance before Him. While I already knew
I COULD dance, I didn’t feel like it was something worthy of offering to God. I
grew up in a very strict religious setting where even lifting your hands in
church could have you sent straight to the pastor’s office for an intervention
because it isn’t acceptable! So dancing before the Lord in a public or private
worship setting was beyond OUT OF THE QUESTION!!! But God KEPT pursuing me in this.
He kept putting more and more desires in my heart and HE kept telling people
that Lindsey should be dancing before me tonight. I was not having it. What
would people think? They would see me and think I was one of those crazy AIM
staffers, or worse, I was doing it for people to look at me and I am not going
to have people thinking that.
Well I made it through the first four
months of the race with people dancing in worship in all of the countries and I
stayed strong and never once dared to do it, but then we hit AFRICA. The
continent that is FAMOUS for its dancing. And God hit me Even Harder. The
desire to dance grew more and more intense and we had been to church where
dancing was “the main part of worship”……. So one night I gave in. “Okay God, I
will dance in your presence but only this once and I will be alone in the dark
where no one can see.” Well that night it was it. I knew it was my gift, my
gift to Him, to the one who had given me the gift in the first place. Before
now I have used it to entertain people through cheer dances and hip hop classes
and even used for sinful purposes and my own personal gain, but now I know the
King has called me to Dance before Him in worship because He delights in me and
He delights in the gift he has given me.
I still am not fully confident in my gift
nor do I ever think I will be. But I am hoping that by writing this I can
encourage someone out there to dig into that gift God has given to them and
turn around and praise Him with it, whether you are confident in it or not, He
will delight in the offering.
