Author: Caitlyn

Daddy Jireh Strikes Again

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

Here’s my big news of the week thus far:

I GOT A JOB!!!

Two Sundays ago, four days after I moved in, I started driving around town picking up job applications. I literally just drove around and walked into every store that looked interesting. Not necessarily the most strategic way to get the job of your dreams, but it is indeed an effective way to get *a* job, especially if you just need part-time whatever. Bed Bath & Beyond was hiring, so I picked up an application and took it home. I spent the rest of the week filling out apps and returning them, finally making it back to BBB on Friday. I would have had an immediate interview if the manager wasn’t busy, so he called me back on Monday and I interviewed, got hired, and had my first two training shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday. WOW!! That was so crazy fast! God is so good!! Third application submitted, first interview, less than two weeks after moving? WHAT???? That’s called extravagance, ladies and gents. God doesn’t do things for his children by halves.

The staff have been really friendly and supportive, another girl from IHOPU works there, and I found two Whovians and a guy from California. HA. (The Whovians and I agree that Peter Capaldi will grow on us just as Matt did. And we will all cry when Eleven regenerates just like we did for Ten.) I’m working in soft lines, which is the towels and bedding and draperies and such. FABRIC. I get to touch fabric and learn about it and talk about it and help customers pick out the right things and best matching combinations… I have sooo much to learn, but they’re going to train me very thoroughly and I will love it here. (And I’m making over minimum wage for this state, which is nice.)

I have the sneaking suspicion that my life is about to get rather overwhelming and sleep will become even more of a rarity than it already is, but it’s completely okay because I LOVE what my life is right now. I’m getting so much good biblical teaching, I have an amazing small group that already blesses me so much, I have the perfect apartment with one of my best friends, I have an INCOME (hallelujah), and best of all, I get to spend almost every morning in the prayer room talking with Jesus as the sun rises. His mercies are new every morning. 🙂

A few particular prayer requests:

  • Favour and quick learning in my new job.
  • A bike so I don’t have to use quite so much gas.
  • Grace and time to work on my creative projects– piano and writing, etc.
  • Continued financial provision.
  • The spirit of wisdom and revelation and I pray and study (Ephesians 1:17).
  • God to use me wherever I go.
Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

What is the Gospel?

On By CaitlynIn Bible Stuff1 Comment

(One of my IHOPU classes, Basic Christian Beliefs, is giving the assignment of blogging on certain questions from the lessons every week. This week, I’m choosing the question “What is the Gospel?”)

Gospel. Euangelion. Good news. Christianity’s favourite word.

So what is this good news?

We could give the bullet point version in the four spiritual laws. We could tell the story of eternity, what I like to call the History of the Universe Abridged. But beneath all of that, I think the gospel is very focussed.  All of the swirls of the message and the history and the “if-then” propositions slow down and come to rest in one very particular place.

Paul gave a concise summary of the New Testament gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you… that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” But the concept of God’s “good news” is so much older than that. This phrase has appeared throughout the Bible, particularly in a few notable places in Isaiah. And when I think about the fullness of what the gospel is, those are the places I go.

“Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
‘Behold your God!'”
(Isaiah 40:9)

What is the good news? GOD. He Himself, and all of who He is, is the good news.

When we proclaim the gospel, what we’re really doing is crying out, “LOOK AT GOD! He is beautiful, He is worthy, He is love, He is grace, He is HOLY!” The full gospel is the declaration of His character. What gospel did Isaiah mean? What gospel did Jesus preach before His death?

John Piper has said that missions exists because worship doesn’t. I believe that when we share the good news, we are inviting people into that circle of the seraphim before the throne, crying out holy, holy, holy. This is the point. HE is the point.

And then we get to go straight up to that throne, curl up on YHWH’s lap, and call Him Papa.

I hope your heart skipped a beat reading those words. Because this is the most sacred, beautiful truth of all. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He has made a way.

And here the cross takes centre stage. In Jesus, in His incarnation and death, was the fullness of God openly displayed. God, stripped naked, beaten ragged, hanging on a tree with arms wide open. Humility. Justice. Victory. Love. Could there be a more beautiful picture of who He is?

So this, my friends, is the gospel.

There is a story, and it’s all about God, and you are invited into it.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'”
(Isaiah 52:7)

Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

+8 Days and Counting!

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

Yesterday was my one week anniversary of being in Kansas City. YAY! KC and I are pretty happy together and expect this to be a long-term relationship, so I’d say things are going well so far. 😉

I’ve been doing 6:00-9:00 a.m. prayer room every morning Monday-Thursday, and I have class at IHOPU at 10:00. That means I wake up at 5:00, get out the door by 5:50 to be early to the prayer room and get my favourite seat, then I’m in there for one full intercession set and half of a worship with the word set. Worship leaders this week have been Justin Rizzo, Jon Thurlow, and Tim Reimherr. I’ve listened to their cds but rarely heard them lead live, so that’s kind of fun.  I also love that the ACTS missions school students are in there in the mornings with me, as well as many IHOPU students, so I’m surrounded by plenty of fiery young people to help me wake up and get my prayer on. 😀

Then I come home and get to spend about 45 minutes eating breakfast, talking with whichever of my flatmates is in the kitchen, and reorienting my brain for class. My class schedule this quarter looks like this:

  • Mon/Wed 10:00-12:00 – Biblical Hermeneutics with Daniel Lim
  • Tues/Thurs 10:00-12:00 – Basic Christian Beliefs with Jono Hall
  • Wed 1:00-3:00 – Sermon on the Mount Practicum with Wes Martin and Dana Candler

I’m also going to have discipleship group meetings once a week, most likely Tuesday afternoons, plus regular service/outreach activities together, but I haven’t been assigned my leader yet. I am definitely looking forward to that, though. I know I want to devote some time to going out with the evangelism teams again at some point, and maybe also ushering and CEC. We’ll see how much my schedule can hold.

These classes are SO much fun already. Bible classes were always one of my favourite parts of APU, and it feels good to be back in the swing of analysing worldviews, doing exegesis, comparing hermeneutics, etc. I did of course get really good Bible teaching during OTI, but it was much less academic. And as much as I love that, I enjoy a little scholarliness thrown in the mix as well. It’s good to approach the Bible in a variety of ways.

I’m also looking for a job. I picked up a stack of applications from all over town that I’m working on getting filled out and turned in, so continued prayer for that would be awesome.

I finally put my keyboard on my desk and started teaching myself some worship songs on it. It is of course veeeeery slow going, but I really want to be able to use music more in my secret place times with God. I know how to figure out the notes and chords even if it takes me a long time, so I am slowly but surely trying to build the habits into my fingers. Maybe one day I’ll be able to post a video of something… even one of my own songs, perhaps? We’ll see. Don’t hold your breath.

All in all, this week has been mostly me figuring out what the upcoming months are going to look like, and I can tell you right now that my future here looks very exciting. I’m at one of the most unique places on the earth for pursuing the knowledge of God and I’m surrounded by passionate, fun, godly people to run with. God has provided for me so graciously already in so many ways, and I know he will continue to provide everything I need. I can’t wait to see what he has for me as I give myself to this thing.

Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

The Road Home: Welcome Home!

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life1 Comment

The rest of the road trip since Phoenix was very fun. I spent a night in Roswell with a very family-like family I got to know through camp. They made me feel so at home, and I love them dearly. 🙂 The next night was spent in Tulsa with two dear friends I’ve only met in person twice before, but with whom I’ve been very close online for years. We all met in the Ted Dekker online fan community, and these two formed a very special bond, repeatedly travelled over several states to spend time together, and are now engaged! !  I had a delightful time talking Ted Dekker, Doctor Who, wedding, and plain old life stuff with them. I treasure these people and it’s such a gift whenever I get to actually talk to and hug them in person.

And finally…. Helloooooo, Kansas City! I made it. I arrived on Wednesday, August 14 in the early afternoon. I spent the rest of the day moving in, hanging out with intern friends, and grocery shopping (eek, adulthood is expensive!). I have my own bedroom in the basement apartment of a wonderful couple’s house just up the street from the prayer room. I currently have three flatmates, but two of them are leaving soon and we may be getting a new one… someone’s looking at the room today. It will for sure be me and my dear friend and former OTI roommate. The shared living space is adorable. Full kitchen and living room, bathroom, laundry room, everything. It’s very well decorated and cozy and colourful. My own room is so much more perfect than I even expected. I was anticipating having to buy a thrifted bookshelf or something for the 70+ books I brought, but as it turns out, there are more shelves and drawers in this room than even I know what to do with. There’s colourful art on the walls, as well as a beautiful bouquet on the desk (I have a desk!) that one of my flatmates bought me as a welcome gift. I am so happy and at home here already. I haven’t had my own room in years.

DSC00992
Can you find the two Doctor Who references in this picture? (You might have to zoom.)

Thursday and Friday were long days of orientation. I met so many amazing, passionate, fun IHOPU people and I am so excited to get to know them better and to do this thing together with them.  We did a scavenger hunt and I loved getting to drive Idris, stuffed to capacity with six people, around Kansas City finding shops and completing tasks. It was very fun to discover that I still (mostly) know my way around town and to discover new places to shop!

Thursday night was our consecration service. It was a really amazing time of setting ourselves apart for God in this season. I definitely felt God’s presence and it was so amazing to realise that although I’ve spent so much of the time since I was last in Kansas City struggling and trying and repenting, it’s a new season and I have no limits on how far I can go in him. Furthermore, there is zero condemnation for all of those times I felt like I was missing it. He actually valued all those times I kept coming back. I’m overwhelmed by his faithfulness and I am so excited to see where he’s going to take me as I press into him!

Tomorrow, I start classes and try to adjust to an early morning Sacred Trust (prayer room hours). Since I’m a sophomore, I can choose my prayer room schedule, and I have several weeks before I have to commit to a schedule, but I’ve decided to try out the 6:00 a.m. time slot. I have class at 10:00, so I’ll probably “officially” be there till 9:00 and then head out around 9:45 or so. That’s the plan so far. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thank you for all your support and prayers! I know many of the people reading this are my family and friends, but I also know I have some regular readers I’ve never even met. Thank YOU so much for entering into this journey with me!

A few ways you can be praying for me:

  • Finding a job.
  • Continued financial provision.
  • Godly, provoking relationships among my flatmates, discipleship group, and IHOPU as a whole.
  • Single-minded focus in the prayer room and in classes.
  • Boldness and anointing in moving with Holy Spirit in whatever he’s doing.
Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

The Road Home: Phoenix!

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life1 Comment

Pictorial representation of said road.
Hello, all! I know it’s been awhile since I last blogged, so here’s the quick rundown of my summer:

  • Lots more babysitting
  • Lots more SEEP
  • Lots of internationals living at our house

For real! My family has been hosting exchange students for several years, and this summer we had a girl from Germany with us for a month, as well as several U.K. football (“soccer”) coaches with us for a week here and there. It’s been absolutely wonderful to have the sound of German in the house again–we hosted a German girl for 5 months a few years ago, and now the accent feels like home to me. And of course we all enjoyed the amazing Brits we got to spend time with. We had a girl and a guy that were both from the north of England, up near Manchester. I was pretty excited to identify and understand that accent, and kept hearing Christopher Eccleston in my head: “Lots of planets have a north.” Our third coach was from Scotland, and it was great to hear him and our English guy argue about the proper way to make tea. I kid you not, it was pretty iconically surreal.

Anyway, I finished my classes on Friday, August 9, and hit the road on Saturday, August 10. That whole last week was busy, beautiful, and bittersweet. I will miss my family. I’ll be home for Christmas, but God only knows when or if I will ever properly live there again. My family is wonderful. I will never forget them all laying hands on me and praying for me to give me a proper send-off.

Yesterday I drove an hour and a half from Rancho out to the desert to have lunch with my grandma on the way to Arizona, realised I forgot my laptop, drove halfway home to meet my gracious brother to pick it up, and then finally made it to Phoenix. I met my friend at her apartment around 6, and then was whisked off to a birthday party at a local outdoor diner to meet all her friends! Seriously, this community here is so beautiful. It’s a whole bunch of intellectual, open-hearted, organic-lovin’ hipsters who go grocery shopping together, hang out on each other’s couches as much as their own, and make friends with all the local small business owners. I love it. I’m so glad God brought this amazing group of people into my friend’s life. This is the kind of closely knit community I’m hoping to find in KC.

So after spending all day Sunday soaking up the eclectic Phoenix atmosphere (and 105° heat!), I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning for Roswell, NM to spend a night with another friend’s family. It’s about a nine hour drive, but that’s completely okay with me. I use the time for listening to cds I never get to hear all the way through, trying new harmonies, singing my own songs, and of course praying. Driving is my favourite time to pray out loud. And maybe go on long rants about the Bible and/or Doctor Who to my imaginary friend in the passenger seat. I just can’t get away with doing that when I’m carpooling, y’know?

So anyway. This journey has been amazing. I can’t believe I’m actually doing this. God is faithful. Kansas City, here I come!

Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

Farewell Camp, Hello Summer!

On By CaitlynIn Personal Updates1 Comment

Hellllloooooo, Rancho Cucamonga! I got home from camp just over a week ago on Friday, June 7. Since then, I have:

  • Watched almost a full season of Heroes on Netflix.
  • Deep cleaned my room and given away bag after bag of clothes and fabric. (I LOVE simplifying my life!! Occasionally I would go on rants about materialism, and then start throwing things out of my closet. It was magnificently freeing.)
  • Crafted more handmade vintage-y greeting cards which will very soon be selling on my new etsy store! (Official announcement pending)
  • Babysat twice and have set up dates for more.
  • Officially made Refuge House of Prayer my home church!

I did not get the “ideal” summer job I had been hoping for. I was a little bummed, but I have concluded that God was protecting me from an overcrowded schedule. My first priority this summer needs to be my online IHOPU classes. As it is, I have arrangements for babysitting over the summer for a number of families. I will be very busy the next two months, that’s for sure.

As excited as I am to be home for a few months, it’s also rather difficult to leave my camp. Summer camp 2010 was my first full-time job. I’ve spent large portions of the past three years there, totaling about 16 months. I’ve learned and grown so much. From general leadership skills like initiative to flexibility to guest service skills like saying “yes” (whenever feasible) to outdoor science school skills. I am now the master of dozens of different ways to get and keep attention, teach about the environment, survive (theoretically) in the wilderness, keep kids busy kids with a game, etc. Throw me on the trail with 20-30 5th graders, and I will be completely in my element.

And even beyond all those handy professional skills, I grew a lot relationally. Since I never lived on campus during college, camp was my first real communal living experience. I’m a solid introvert with a tendency toward isolationism, so being “forced” to “do life” with so many people was just what I needed. The teamwork, fun, and fellowship has been simply wonderful. I love these people so much and will always treasure the memories I’ve built with them.

I’ve also learned how to intentionally carve out time for God. I had to do it at APU, but it got harder at camp. That’s why the camp prayer chapel and a couple of other lookout locations have become so precious to me. I’ve met with God there, because I’ve determined to set aside time and treat them like appointments that must be kept. The key is intentionality and priority. It’s planning ahead and putting my Bible in my backpack (even if it means I end up hiking the mountain with it for half a day). It’s taking advantage of small – or large – blocks of time. If I want to spend time with God, then I’ve got to fight to make sure that happens when no one else will do it for me.

The mountains have bewitched me, body and soul. I see God in them every time I look around. I see him when I marvel at the rugged, delicate, colourful, brilliant beauty of this world. Golden, flaming sunsets. Leaves rustling in the breeze. The rich petrichor smell of the forest in the rain. Colours, shadows, textures, shades of life. So much depth and creativity… they all reveal the heart of the Artist.

Those three years were one of the best gifts my Father has ever given me.

Now, Rancho. Family. Home. And classes… SEEP starts tomorrow. I’m going to be throwing myself into studying the Bible at a level I never have before. I’ve sat through classes at OTI, but there was no homework. I’ve done Bible classes at APU, but that was APU, not IHOPU.

This is going to be a summer to remember.

Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

The Road Home: Trust in the Waiting

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

Two weeks ago, my life felt out of control. I felt like I didn’t know anything solid about my future. Over the past couple of months, I have applied for

  • an apartment in Kansas City,
  • an ideal-sounding summer job about which I shall remain mum for now, and
  • official intern transfer to IHOPU.

Each one of these has its own tangled history of lost applications, phone tag, miscommunication, and last minute deadlines. I’ve been constantly stressed about all of it.

I’ve been meeting every week with several of my coworkers to pray and study the Word together. This group has become a huge blessing to me. We’ve all been praying for different things in our lives, and one by one we’re all starting to see answers.

  • I’ve been confirmed for the Kansas City apartment, in a basement with at least one of my former coremates. Perfect location, rent, utilities, everything.
  • I’ve made good contact with the summer job people, and while nothing is confirmed yet, it doesn’t look as hopeless as I thought it was after I found out my application had gotten lost. I also got permission from my camp manager to leave a week or two early if necessary. If this works, it will be perfect.
  • I was finally able to resubmit all pieces of my IHOPU app once the first one was lost in the mail. I had my phone interview on Friday. As soon as I hear back from them on my official acceptance I will be able to register for SEEP, and not a day early!

Not everything’s 100% settled yet, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. God’s pulling me through. I’ve even been able to figure out my driving schedule and plan to see various friends along the way!

It’s been encouraging to remember the times in the past that God has come through for me. A year ago, when I was preparing to leave for OTI, there were plenty of obstacles thrown at me, most of which are chronicled on this very blog.

I still don’t know exactly how all of this will work out, especially concerning the employment issue. But this I know:

He who has been faithful
will be faithful.

He has called me, he has chosen me, and he will be faithful to get my butt where it needs to be.

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(1 Corinthians 1:9)

Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

Caught Up In Mercy

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life1 Comment

I’ve been caught up in mercy
I’ve been caught up in grace
All my cares have fallen off now
And this joy I can’t explain…
-Zac Dinsmore, IHOPKC, “Caught Up In Mercy”
Listen on Soundcloud

This song was one of the big tools God used to encounter and change me during my time in OTI. A conversation with a friend brought it all to the surface again the other day, so I decided that now’s a good time to share this part of my story.

I’ve often had difficulty understanding the abundance of God’s grace toward me because since I got saved when I was three, I’ve often felt like I don’t have much of a testimony. There wasn’t much of a dramatic before-and-after; I was three, for heaven’s sake! I had a hard time with verses such as Luke 7:47, which says, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Of course, I know that because of Jesus, I’m not going to hell, and that in itself is huge, but… I still felt like I was missing something, like all of the ex-drug-addicts could somehow love Jesus better than I could.

One night, as Zac was singing this in the prayer room, I was thinking back again through my life and who I used to be. God really has brought me so far. I normally start telling my testimony at age three, then jump to high school when my spiritual renaissance began, but that night God started reminding me of all the childhood sins I’d like to forget… things that are seemingly small in retrospect, but I remember exactly how I felt during those times and I know that it came from genuine darkness within me. I remember trying to bury the guilt, but I couldn’t undo the damage. I was a hard-hearted selfish little 12-year-old who was bitter at nothing in particular, and I hated that about myself.

The great mercy is that even then, God wouldn’t let go of my heart. I still somehow loved him and kind of wanted him. I knew I was missing something about the whole God thing, and I wanted to be a mature Christian someday, but really didn’t want to be “weird.” And so I kept God at a safe distance. Even though I was a church kid, my heart mostly lived in darkness.

And God broke in and rescued me from that. I would sit in my room and pray for “breakthrough” even though I didn’t know what I meant. I wanted to just wake up with all my darkness gone, because I hated it but didn’t know how to grow without the growing pains. He was faithful, though, and gradually he brought me out of that and into genuine light and love.

Through all this time, I was “saved.” I was a “good church girl.” I wasn’t acting out or doing crazy things, but I was still living in a shadow of what my life was meant to be.

He could have left me there. I was on my way to heaven, the big job was done, God would have been completely within his rights to leave me floundering and move on to the next lost soul, knowing that he would get all of me in eternity eventually anyway.

But he didn’t.

He wasn’t content to just leave me technically saved but still in the dark in so many ways.

He wanted all of my love NOW, immature and broken though it is. He actually WANTED me, the in-the-process me of today. He knew it would be a messy, bumpy road, but he so desperately wanted to be with me that he refused to wait. He fought to bring me to this place I am today. He died to bring me to this place of love and intimacy NOW, not just in the age to come. It wasn’t just about eternity. It was about me being free and knowing him TODAY.

He wasn’t content to leave me. He fought for me because he wanted me.

I cried for twenty minutes when all of that hit me.

What if he didn’t? What would my life have been like if he had left me there at age 12, or if I hadn’t gotten saved at all? Although it’s impossible to predict that alternate timeline with any kind of accuracy, I know the tendencies and impulses I struggle to quash on a daily basis. If left unchecked, they would no doubt destroy me.

I know me too well. And he loves me too well to leave me to that.

In his mercy, he not only rescued me from what was but from what might have been.

He saved me in every way a person could be saved.

That’s the grace I’ve been caught up in.

Zac Dinsmore "Caught Up In Mercy" album artwork
Listen to “Caught Up in Mercy” on Soundcloud
Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares

Dance Is What The Soul Looks Like

On By CaitlynIn Just Thoughts1 Comment

I went to my cousin’s college dance show today. It was stunning. I haven’t been on stage as a dancer since… March 2009. Ouch. I wanna dance again. I dance constantly alone at home and in the back of the room during worship, of course, but I miss the choreography and the challenge of really pushing myself to express an emotion through every inch of my body.

My favourite thing about dance shows is finding the themes and stories being portrayed through the music and movement (and supported by the lighting, costuming, and all such theatrical elements). My favourite numbers are always the most subtle and abstract, the modern dances that seem to tell a story you can barely catch the edges of. Dance has the ability to celebrate and/or illuminate human nature, the human experience, and the deep shared history that binds us together. Grace and strength, harmony and dissonance. Dance is the story of us.

One of the numbers that opened the show was entitled “Perdido” (which means “lost” in Spanish) and featured a man and a woman on a dark stage. They started slowly, facing each other, and they seemed to awaken and discover each other before breaking away. Their movements seemed to constantly separate and then come back together. There was correlation, symmetry, and also an intensity of discord. I sensed joy and vitality and celebration and unity, and also separation and yearning and despair and confusion and shame. It was as if they needed each other and were bound together, but they were incapable of maintaining the harmony. They ended with the woman leaning backwards over the man’s back as he hunched over with his fists over his face, as though hiding from a deep inner darkness. I don’t know what exactly the choreographer’s original vision was, but to me it was a picture of the Fall. The brokenness of the relationship between Man and Woman, and also between God and his Creation. There was an echo of beauty fractured by fear and shame. It was a profound reflection of the world we live in.

Another of the modern dances that spoke to me was called “Atonement” and featured an ensemble of dancers, male and female, each wearing a straight ankle length black wrap skirt with a bright colour as the lining. Upstage centre was a video screen. The intensity and violence of the music and the dancers’ movements were accented by the images and words flashing across the screen. WAR. POVERTY. TERRORISM. The dance continued, displaying the depravity of humanity and the broken state of our world. The long skirts reminded me almost of ancient Japanese samurai styles, and seemed to represent the ancient violence of this struggle, and the fact that the diverse ensemble of dancers wore the same costume reminded me of the solidarity of humanity. We are all the same; we are all caught inside this beast.

Then the music changed, and a solo dancer performed gracefully while images of Ghandi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King Jr. came across the screen. The soloist was rejoined by the ensemble, and words like PEACE, HUMANITY, and COMPASSION appeared behind the dancers. The music regained intensity, and the struggle continued, displaying the war between light and darkness that humanity is caught in the middle of.

I wondered what the dancers felt as they performed. Did they feel, as I did, that this was a prayer going up to God for salvation from this mess?

Yes, dance can be a prayer. Dance speaks in ways that words can’t. Dance is music made flesh. It’s shape, movement, speed, precision, grace, and strength telling a story in four dimensions. I have danced joy, freedom, and love… and also desperation, anger, and loneliness. In those moments, I feel like what my body is doing on the outside mirrors what my spirit is doing on the inside.

I love the creativity of God that he gave us this art with which to communicate. To dance is to be fully alive and aware and expressive. To dance is to put feelings into motion. Dance is the colour of life.

“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:4)

Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares