Sailed back into my driveway just past midnight yesterday after making the trek home from Tennessee to Kansas. The 10-hour drive served up a great Christian worship concert, various cruise control speeds, and a lengthy amount of time to reflect on the week at World Race Training Camp.
Before leaving for training camp, I had been struggling with the limbo between “this life” and “that life” coming up. With a constant stream of to-do lists, balancing work/social life, and fulfilling my dance company commitment, I was feeling pretty scattered. The result? Sobbing in the corner at multiple dance rehearsals. I am a level-headed, calm & collected person who does not cry often. But the tears kept reappearing uncontrollably disturbing the peace I was trying to exude as I worked through the possible last few months of my active dance life. Truthfully, underneath I was terrified at the thought of leaving dance behind for the World Race next year.
Fast forward to night four of training camp:
An epic worship session in progress, concert style with no chairs set out, dancing freely to the loud music, and myself (in true form) up at the front of it all. We just finished singing out the tune “I wanna dance in the river of Your love,” when we were directed to take time for a listening prayer by quieting our own thoughts/opening up to what God might have to say to us. I stood there, head bowed, eyes closed, palms open, swaying to the faint music still filling the space.
Suddenly, I wasn’t dancing alone…
Jesus was dancing with me! I kid you not. The image of Jesus swaying with me, holding my hands, and grinning from ear-to-ear, was so real that I burst into an onset of joyful tears, giggling to myself at the magical moment. His message to me was this: “Your dancing is so beautiful to Me and I never want it to stop. I want you to dance with my beautiful people among the nations and share the joy you have through your faith in Me. Living life in a dance with Me is the most beautiful choreography there ever was. I have always been dancing with you and want to dance with you every day of your life.” As the delicate moment ended, I realized the truth in what He said. In fact, I was introduced to my home church because I was invited to dance in the Palm Sunday service way back when, and found myself returning week after week eager to know more about the Lord. We’ve been dancing together all along.
I am no longer afraid to move forward.
Sure, there is a roller coaster of emotions to come as I transition to a new phase of life (hopefully no more crying in the corner), but I want to celebrate this time I have right now. And I am also so excited for the year ahead as I take the dancing Jesus in my heart to the world so that they may know Him.
Enjoy a clip from class with some of my greatest friends, even the One who you can’t see in the video. 😉
