1 Oct 2010
Dancing on the Battlefield
Joy in the face of fear
I had a conversation today that left an indelible image on the screen of my imagination.
A friend told me that God had given her a picture of herself dancing on the battlefield.
It’s a beautiful image of joy in the face of fear.
Sometimes its tempting to want to pretend that the battle doesn’t exist, or go to the other extreme and only see the battle.
As we talked about the picture amongst a group of us, someone pointed out that it required both courage and trust to dance on a battlefield..
It’s a choice not to allow the current circumstances determine my response.
It’s an image that deserves to be a poem or a song.
It also reminds me of the passage from Colossians 3 that I was reading this morning:
Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. (Colossians 3:9-11)
I love the picture of someone flinging off the battle gear and putting on dancing gear.
The world wants to set an agenda for our lives, telling us what we should look like, talk like, think like and achieve.
Colossians tells me the world’s agenda is garbage.
In the battle of life, it’s not me who wins the war. My job is simply to trust and follow Jesus. Nothing else matters.
The more I try to rely on my own skill, plans or resources, the more stressed I become.
The less I rely on myself, the more I am free to dance on the battlefield.