I really don't want to dance for God anymore ... I want to dance with God.Kind of an interesting thought isn't it. I feel that most of my life has been driven by this sense of pleasing God by doing spiritual things ... interesting how subtle this form of performance based spirituality is ... we want to dance for Him when He wants to dance with us. Relationships are all about how we dance ... sad that some of us feel we need to do a tap dance solo rather than a jitterbug or waltz.
In light of these thoughts I would like to take a look at a very well known passage of scripture:
"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:1-2)
I think that words like sacrifice, transformation and the will of God are concepts that can get weird when they are built on shaky foundations. Sacrifice can become perverted, transformation a formula and God's will a narrow rigid path. Consider the person who interprets 'laying down your life' to mean being a doormat for other people. This person subconsciously believes that their true worth is based on service to others ... a noble thought but truly a performance based version spirituality. A more correct version of this would be when Jesus said this about His life in John 10:18 ...
"No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again."Jesus knew that His life was valuable ... he knew that the decision to lay it down was His call alone ... He could not be manipulated into laying it down against His will ... He wanted to do it ... that is what made it a magnificent act. Likewise, we are not doormats for people or for God ... laying down our lives is truly spiritual when we are doing it because we want to.
Over the years I have heard some pretty weird stuff about God's will. Some use this verse in Romans to separate His will into three categories - good, acceptable and perfect. They build an artificial hierarchy around the will of the Father and create a performance scale to judge themselves by ... have you ever done that? It is another version of performance based thinking ... tap dance is good ... soft-shoe is acceptable ... ballet is perfect ... pretty silly. God doesn't want us to dance for Him ... He wants to dance with us and He doesn't care if it is a tango, a mambo or a waltz ... the dance is ours to choose. I'll go out on a limb here and say this:
Being in God's will is not about what we do but all about who we are and who we are becoming. God's will is that we become like Jesus ... and there are many ways to get there!How often do we seek out God's will to determine whether we do this or do that totally missing the point of 1Corinthians 10:31
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.The glory of God can be manifested in whatever we do. So why do we focus our energies on being in His perfect will? I think that it is yet another way that we try to dance for Him. We say to ourselves: "If I can only do this or do that then I will be in His 'perfect will'". All the while missing the opportunity to dance the dance of love with Him today.