Relaxing Into His Love
Some listener feedback from the parenting podcasts start Brad and Wayne off by revisiting that topic, but they soon push on with other listener email to discuss how it is that people learn to live inside of the Father's love. Learning to live loved is not a doctrine we have to be convinced of, nor a discipline we can achieve; it is a reality we relax into. That's what Jesus wanted his disciples to know, to live by what Father gives, instead of always trying to get from him what we think we need. The blog and audio clip Wayne refers to during the podcast can be found here: Relaxing Into a Life Live Loved.
You can also you can check out the new Freedom Slingers, a graphic contributed by someone who spends way too much time on Photoshop! And yes, this is a joke, you cannot order any action figures!
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Really good stuff, I’ve been thinking along those lines myself, and you guys said it very well. Thanks.
As someone who has started, somewhat later in life, to learn to ballroom dance, I can really resonate with the difficulties of learning to dance and the analogies between dancing and living the Christian life. I have always thought that following was harder than leading, because the follower had little idea what was going to happen next, and had to respond without hesitation to the leader. But I have noticed over the last couple of years a progression, or maturity, in my understanding of leading and following in dancing. When I first started out, I was just concerned as a leader with learning my steps, and I just hoped my partner could do her steps too. Then I became aware of the importance of connection between partners, so that I could convey to my partner what I wanted her to do. And the connection was an action both dancers had to maintain; there could be no connection if only one partner was trying to maintain the connection. And then one day it dawned on me that to improve my dancing, I as a leader had to be just as much a follower as the girl, but my responsibility was to follow the music. And so I had to respond instantly to the music in order to lead the girl. And now I have made yet another discovery about leading: to be a really good dance, leading is much more of a cooperative effort. My responsibility is not only to lead the girl, but also to sense what it is that she is able to do, or perhaps what it is that she wants to do, and change my leading accordingly. It may be that I am starting to lead her into a particular step, but realize that her weight is not positioned correctly to make that step, and so I change my lead to do what she is able to do in that instant. Or I feel through that connection that I have with her that she wants to do some variation of the step that is perhaps not what I had intended, but is still perfectly acceptable, and so I change my lead to facilitate her doing what she wants to do. There are many analogies to the Christian life in all these facets of lead and follow in dancing, but the one that I am currently being impressed with is how God in his leading invites me to participate and to add my creativity, and he will even facilitate that. Just as Moses in some sense “changed God’s mind”, God gives us the freedom to participate with him in the execution of the dance so as to express our own individuality. That is way cool!
Gary,
I LOVE what you posted. It’s an amazing analogy.