Save the dance...

I have been reading Fresh Faith by Jim Cymbala, a great book that corresponds well with our current fall campaign of Discovering the Possibilities of Faith. The book is wonderful (a definite recommendation), but there is a phrase in the book that I have begun using - Jim says, in reference to kidding or fooling ourselves, "Let's not dance with ourselves."

The call to live a life of faith and the life of a Christian is a call to honesty that begins with telling the truth about ourselves, includes recognizing the truth that God tells us, and includes recognizing the lies of the devil. Each one of these "honesty" checks is difficult, but the one that Christians are simply awful at is telling the truth about themselves. As a pastor, when trying to help someone become extricated from a sinful pattern, if that person refuses to acknowledge the pain they are causing to God, themselves, and others, and if that person fails to recognize the ugliness of their sin, than victory is impossible. They are too busy "dancing with themselves."

I even see this with non-sinful issues. For example, for years I would lie to myself about what I could consume and not consume, and how ultimately, I could control my health if I had to. Until I realized that my habits were controlling me - it wasn't that I couldn't stop behaving in unhealthy manners, but it is that I refused to be truthful and recognize just how weak I really was. For me, if there is candy at my desk or chocolate in the cupboard, I was going to eat it, regardless of my "will (or Willis) power." I had to take that stuff away completely so that I wouldn't "dance with myself" and keep adding pounds and bad health.

I believe this extends into our church life as well. Too often, we are a church that "dances with ourselves." EVERYONE knows that EVERYONE has problems (if you've seen our sign - we're "the perfect church if you aren't") and EVERYONE struggles and has issues - R.E.M. reminded us that "everybody hurts sometimes." But our hurts and struggles, rather than being what distances us away from each other, should be the one thing that draws us closer together. If I can find healing for a hurt or a solution for a problem or encouragement for my life mission through others, than why don't I seek that? I think the problem is that we "dance with ourselves" and we don't want to acknowledge that in our church body - from leaders to laypeople - are sin, problems, and struggles. We would rather gloss over that because, in doing so, we can gloss over our own. It becomes a Clinton-like "don't ask, don't tell" policy - and the praise music we play every Sunday becomes just another opportunity not to dance with the Father but to dance with ourselves.

I read this morning on Jesus Creed that the Ted Haggard scandal has really exposed some weaknesses in the way we as the church relate in community, especially when it comes to dealing with our sin and weakness - Journey, something has to change, from pastor to deacon to leader to teacher to layperson; from fathers to mothers, husbands to wives, parents to children, children to friends - all the way down - something has to change in our community for us to really understand what COMMUNITY is all about...

Church - The Journey, if we really are going to be a church that travels "together in community," then let's stop dancing with ourselves and let's start dancing with each other! Let's dance in selfless, engaging, encouraging, inviting, growing, instructing, and relational community - putting away bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander and instead putting on kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness, clothing ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience! Save the dance for your brothers and sisters in Christ, and for the God who rejoices and sings over us.

No more dancing with ourselves and grieving the Holy Spirit. Let's start dancing with each other and letting the fulness of the Spirit dwell in our midst...