Prayer Discovery

This is from Thomas Merton near the end of his life:

"In prayer we discover what we already have. You start from where you are and you deepen what your already have, and you realize you are already there. We already have everything but we don't know it and don't experience it. Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess."

What will you discover? enough for now.

Thanksgiving

Blessings of love, family, and peace in spite of the foolishness around you, placed on you, or dumped on you.  You are stronger than that, you are better than that. Embrace your community- family, extended family, friends - and hold on to the joy that only God gives. In spite of stupidity- whether yours or another's, God still is, and God still is able, oh yes. Blessings of giving thanks, now and going forward. Shalom! enough for now.

Giving Thanks

Yes, we are in the season for giving thanks.  What are you thankful for?  Look at it.  There should be so many things. You are loved. You  have the ability to change.  You can walk in your healing. You can walk in your healing.  Let others love you.  Allow yourself to love God and to loved by God.  Experience God's delight in you.  Walk out of the silly real stuff that holds you back. Step into the very real life that has been prepared for you.  Get on your journey, and explore all that God has for you. That is reason to give thanks.  Blessings. enough for now.

Rest

Rest is allowed, even in dancing. Sometimes you must rest, you must regroup. You are invited into God's rest. TODAY. Take long deep breaths. Breathe out anxiety, breathe in peace. Breathe out tiredness, breathe in clarity. Breathe out worry, breathe in peace. Breathe out whatever is causing stress, breathe in peace. Wait, hear, listen. Rest. TODAY. You can dance later, you will dance again. Watch what God is doing in your life. enough for now.

Learn the Dance

Learn the dance. I told you how I learned. That is how I taught liturgical dance to my dance ministry. My dancers had basics. They had to get the steps correct. It is so sad when dancers are looking at other dancers to make sure they are correct. My dancers had to know the steps. Many times we discussed scripture that was the foundation of the dance. Our rehearsals were tight and sometimes young people don't appreciate 'tight.' They worked hard, many times rolling their eyes at me.

The dancers knew their positions, they knew their steps.  Then they were free to dance for the Lord. Oh my goodness! As they danced, those viewing were invited into the worship through their dance. Oh my goodness! Yes, we were all transformed. They learned the dance. You learn the dance by getting the basics first. Get what you are to do, and at the proper time - you move, you flow, you dance your dance- all because you learned the basics and were not afraid to dance. enough for now.

Dance

In life, just like dance, you must learn the basics. Yes, maybe you are one that did not have nurturing, teaching parents to teach you the basics. Your life is not over. You don't need to give up or to overcompensate for what did not happen. It is not too late. Get the basics. God created you to dance, to live. And yes, He is indeed your dance partner, like my father was for me.

Just like I had my dancers to get the steps, they knew that their audience was not the people, but God. And they danced for God. People viewing worshiped collectively, and were blessed.  Sometimes, even rehearsals were worship events. Don't you love it?

You have your basic instruction and encouragement in the Bible. You really do. Find a spiritual director that can aid in your spiritual transformation, one that can show you the steps. The Creator so created you that as you get the basics, you can create new dances- same basics, new dances. On this journey no one dances the same way, but we all move in tune with Holy Spirit's guidance. Our lives can become worship, both individually and collectively, as we dance. We hear Holy Spirit's guidance, we can follow God's will, we can giggle with the love of Jesus. We dance. Go ahead, oh please try it. It is an awesome journey of dancing. Learn the basics, learn the dance, dance. enough for now.

Dance Basics

I just had a good conversation with a mentee. In sharing with how I learned to work in spite of my shortcomings, I shared with her about how I learned to dance.  Okay, let me be clear- we all have strengths and weaknesses.  We should walk in our strengths and strengthen our weaknesses. The first way in strengthening is to recognize it is a weakness. We don't stay looking at where we fall, we get up and go again.  If we all stayed where we were with our faults we would never move more into what God has for us.

My father taught me how to dance. I watched as he placed his feet and then I progressed into dancing with him (yeah after stepping a few times on his feet).  When I got the basics, I could dance around the room, dance with the bedposts.  When I got older there were new dances to learn that Daddy could not teach me.  But I had the basics.  She replied was that she had to learn the dance. You have to learn the dance. enough for now.