A Delicate Dance

My life is a delicate dance on a thin balancing beam.  One foot follows the other as they lead me onto the floor.  The music plays, and the crowd’s cheers fade into the distance.  My breath and my heartbeat count the steps I take, with such beauty and grace, fluidity and perfect balance.  The song rises to a climax; all eyes are waiting for the perfect flip, complete with the flawless landing.  My mind is two steps ahead of my feet, and I know the moment has arrived.  My body and the beam have acted as one, but now as my feet have left it, the beam has become the enemy and the goal—the fear and the trust.  My body moves in the air as it would in water, as if I control time and space.  Gravity takes its toll, and the beam and I are reunited, although we are not as one. I did not trust it, as I should.  The goal has been missed, the fear has been received.   I pick up my broken body, my humbled spirit, and the crowd comes into focus.  The music fades as one foot follows the other and leads me off the floor.  My dance has not been perfect, my balance not quite complete.  However, I will rise again, with such beauty and grace. And my life will continue to be a delicate dance on a thin balancing beam.

* Interpretation to come!

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** My metaphor comes from a secret love for gymnastics, ever since the Olympics with Dominique Dawes, Dominique Moceanu, and Kerri Strug.  Don't judge me. :)  

What Gives Life?

On Fridays, we have high school assembly.  This is a time for announcements, important information, and some type of quick activity or lesson.  This past Friday, we discussed this quote:

Cease from what is necessary; embrace that which gives life.
Mark Buchanan

Earlier this week, Damian (my boss, who was leading this assembly), asked a co-worker about this quote.  Mike Pollock works in Tianjin, China and is a great guy who is adding to the kingdom like crazy.  I’ve worked with him on several events, and his father wrote the most used book about the “third culture” experience for children.  Mike said the following in regards to the above quote:

Maybe our problem is in the identification of what is necessary.  This is because others often tell us what is necessary in ways that are not life-giving.  So the quest is to find others that agree on the life-giving as the necessary.  It seems to me that if the priority is set right, the tiring and the difficult things can be endured because they are not central but peripheral.  
Michael Pollock

I’m not quite sure if the students grasped the concepts here, but it has stuck with me for several days now.  I have found this to be extremely true for me in the last week.  If I know what is ultimately life giving (God), and I make Him the only necessary thing, then everything else becomes “peripheral,” not central.

In the assembly, we discussed what gives life.  There were options such as, good friends, food, sports, great weather, romance, family: all good things that at any moment can be life giving.  But, as Damian suggested, those good things are not always going to be there. What happens when summer turns to winter, we move schools and our friends are no longer with us, our hobbies no longer satisfy.  What gives life then? 

So, if the life-giving God is the only thing that is necessary, we will always be satisfied in Him.  That’s what I want.

“God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.”
-John Piper

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings…”  Philippians 3:10