Resurrect the Dance

 “Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,

Let me forget about today until tomorrow.”

Bob Dylan “Mr. Tambourine Man”

Dancing in total abandonment… One hand waving free. How long it has been since I danced like that!  I have done it before, more times than I can count. Most every day of my life.  If there was a song, there was a dance. From a hobby to a 20 year profession.

But I buried my dance long ago. My dancing to music and my dancing with life.  I buried it even before Michael died.  It sunk deeper into the grave beside him after his death.  How can I ever dance again?

It’s time.  Time to stir up the dancer - and the dance - in me.

I find irony in Ecclesiastes 3.  It leaves me a bit mystified.  Here is the famous listing of “a time for everything”…. a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…

Wait…What?  Dancing follows mourning?  These two are a pair? Really? Hard to swallow that one – but it must be so, just as the others hold true. As naturally as dying eventually follows birth, and building naturally follows tearing down, dancing should naturally follow on the tails of mourning.  Joyful abandonment.  Freedom to enjoy life again.  The weight of grief lifted. Moving creatively and gracefully through life.  Expressions of thankfulness for life itself.

It’s time to resurrect the dance.

For two years now, the resurrection power of Christ has been on my heart.  While tucked away in the countryside of New York, the prayer for resurrection power opened up on me. It felt like the sun opening up on an overcast afternoon with its warmth enveloping every inch of my body. In the solitude of my writing room, I came to God one day with a blank slate.  I asked Him to write my prayers.  Our needs were so great for continued healing and restored life that I did not even know how to pray.  So I asked God for His prayers for me.  His answer – pray the resurrection power of Christ over your household.

THAT’S IT!

Why hadn’t I thought of that?

It reminded me of how Charlie Brown felt in Charlie Brown’s Christmas while receiving counsel from Lucy.  As she sits behind her makeshift desk, she lists several phobias that may be his problem…

Lucy: Are you afraid of staircases? If you are, then you have climacaphobia. Maybe you have thalassophobia. This is fear of the ocean, or gephyrobia, which is the fear of crossing bridges. Or maybe you have pantophobia. Do you think you have pantophobia?

Charlie Brown: What's pantophobia?

Lucy: The fear of everything.

Charlie Brown: THAT'S IT!

Of course I should pray the resurrection power over the kids and me!  It covers everything!  My prayers began to pour out of my heart as if a floodgate had lifted.  Our needs for life were great and had built up - but it was time to release the dam.  The resurrection power lifted the gate just as it rolled away the stone from the tomb for Jesus.

Lord, I pray the resurrection power of Christ over me.  Resurrect my heart from the dead.  Resurrect my hope for the future. Resurrect my joy, my boldness. Resurrect my dreams.  Resurrect my life from the ashes. Resurrect my creativity and my gifts that I have lost the desire to use.  Resurrect my desires, my purpose. Resurrect my dance.   Restore me; restore my family, with the same power that restored Christ after his death on the cross.

I personalized this prayer for each one of my children.  It became my daily prayer as I cried out to God to lift our lives, completely and wholly, from the ashes that remained from my husband’s death.  We needed a complete, glorified resurrection, just as Jesus did.

I have watched the resurrection slowly take place in each of us, in small steps and in different areas.  In my life, the resurrection of hope and desire led to a natural resurrection in other areas.  Because desire was alive again, I chose to reach down to Dance and pull her out of the ashes… “Let’s dance again.” I whispered to her.

A time to mourn and a time to dance.

In 2 Samuel 6:14, scantily clad King David danced before the Lord with all of his might.

In reference to this scripture, Joshua Dubois writes in his book, The President’s Devotional, “He danced because the Lord had been good.  He danced because despite unspeakable trials, he was still alive. He danced because it gave glory and honor to the God who had formed him in his mother’s womb.  He danced because the weight of sin had been lifted off of him.  He danced, and danced, and then danced some more, with all that he had.”

Its time for me to dance.

Dancing in total abandonment is not only limited to physical dancing, as we know it.  The way we live our lives, face it, approach it, experience it, can also be a dance of abandonment…with one hand waving free.  Living free, without a care of what others may think.  Living life from the heart. Moving seamlessly in step with our dreams, our purpose.  Exuberant living.  As a body moves to the rhythm of the music bringing a song to life, so our lives can move and glide along with life itself, its rhythm, its pulse, while bringing subtle inspiration to those watching the dance. Yes, dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waiving free.

Resurrect your dance.

A glimpse of my days as a professional choreographer and performer.  A pre-game performance for a NFL game.  A group I directed for this special event.  If you haven't figured it out...I'm the one in the middle!