Dancing With the Spirit

After such a long and oppressive stretch in my life, Grace has returned with a magnificence that refuses to be described.  I suppose it is a bit like being the recipient of CPR, returning to life after nearly coming to the end of life.  This meditation has lived in my heart for many years.  It is only now making real sense to me. I hope you find encouragement in it for yourself.  So many of us believe we have to be "good" in order to be acceptable.  Grace says it is God in Christ who does the work!  What Joy it brings when we understand we are beloved as we are.  THAT is the motivation for goodness and righteousness.  Unconditional love, poured out until we are just silly with the joy of it. . . with much love, Connie

Many years ago now I had a kind of vision and it had everything in the world to do with Grace.  You see that's what I believe that dancing with the Spirit actually is...living in Grace.  So back to this kind of vision.  

In my mind's eye I envisioned myself as a child, and I was dancing with great enthusiasm and joy.  I could have danced like that forever.  There was a beautiful light shining down on me.  I knew I was dancing for God, and I also knew God was loving my dance.  I could feel it in every cell of my being.  That dance went on for moments, for years, for an eternity.

But then it all changed.  At some point, I danced too closely to the edges of the light and I was snatched by the darkness, pinned to the ground, unable to move, barely able to breath.  A heavy weight, like a lead blanket was on top of me, and I thought surely I would die.  But I didn't, I just lay there, unable to move, unable to make a sound or ask for help, unable to see in the midst of that darkness.  This went on for what felt like an eternity, this terrible oppression, this absence of grace. 

Finally, I heard footsteps, and there, appearing to me in that darkness were a pair of feet in a familiar pair of sandals.  He was reaching down for me, his movements unrestrained by that terrible oppressive darkness.  He pulled me gently to my feet.  The heaviness fell away, and as I gazed into that beloved, glorious face he touched my face and smiled a kind smile.  I wept.  And we began to dance together.   But not for long.  The darkness was no longer impenetrable for me, and as I looked around there were many, many others trapped beneath that heavy, terrible oppression.  Together we began the work of helping others to be free.  Not everyone would accept help, they had become so afraid of that darkness, so trapped in that terrible place.  But many others rose up and remembered who they were and why they were here, and we joined together in the work, dancing together in freedom, dancing in grace, dancing with Jesus, dancing with the Holy Spirit, dancing with the love of God.