Dancing Trees

How often is this a picture of us… of me…?

At moments we dance and then at others we are so still and stoic.  This quote has always been such a powerful statement to me.

I recently re-read something that I had written several years ago and I was challenged by my own words to ask myself where I currently am in those two options, dancing or standing still and seemingly lifeless in comparison to the life I once lived.

I have had many conversations with friends the last couple of years about how when we are young we feel such passion for changing the world in great and mighty ways and then somewhere along the way we loose the fierceness of those passions.   Many times I have sat with people and asked questions about all of this.

– is it just life…

– Money

– Bills

– Jobs

– Responsibilities as a whole

– Being burned by disappointment

When, where, and why does that fire get quenched?

Is it simply a combination of all of these things or is there an even deeper plot that happens that we as believers miss? Many of these conversations seem to end at the road of realization/remembrance that there is a real battle that is happening all around us.  I have begun to realize more and more that most people, myself mainly,  just don’t notice it or forget about the truth that we are at war.

The battle is real, so very real, it is as real as it was in the old testament when Joshua fought with the Lord beside him and going before him.  Joshua’s battles were heavy, brutal, tiring, and borderline crazy at most times, but they fought, they fought with all knowledge and trust that the Lord was on their side.

Then… it was visible scary yelling men with large swords who truly wanted to kill everyone in their path.  Now it is an invisible enemy that comes at us with lies and deception that cut to our core yet does not cause us to bleed but instead causes us to doubt everything about our maker.   This enemy’s goal is still the same as the enemies in the Old Testament… to kill you, steal from you and destroy you at any cost.

 I believe that the enemy’s job description is the very thing that put the fire out so quickly. We go into the battle and we run and yell and throw up our swords with all we have.  Then suddenly something trips us, surprises us, or we simply find our enemy far more intimidating than we imagined and it burns us.

                – just take a few steps back

                – regroup

                – think about things more before moving

                – reevaluate

I have also seen in my own life that I allow  a battle scar to begin to eat away at me and  become the excuse for not running back into battle.  

I become skiddish in voice, relationship, trust, boldness and so many other things.  I, who once walked out in the boldness with trust in my God now  walk with a limp called timidness.

Rekindling the Flame
How do we do this?

How do we rekindle what has been so badly squelched?

The fire isn’t gone it just needs the breath of life.

The battle being won isn’t as apparent as it was in Joshua’s day.  Then, men died and fell to your right and to your left, but as of now it happens so much in a realm that we cant see.

However, the key is to believe and remember that the battle is being won even when we are wounded, have given up, or allowed death to take us.  The battle has been won. I have to believe this to ever dance as I once did.

AND I WANT SO DESPERATELY TO DANCE!!! 

 

 

 

My prayer has become this;

“Christ I cry out that your Holy Spirit would be the breathing wind in the flame that is you and that you have placed in me and each person you have put in my life. I cry out with a passion to see my heart be yours. I pray that my hopes, dreams, desires would be yours and that you would move in them I give them to you. Lord you are hope you are fire and you are what makes us dance, I cry out for dancing in you, for you and because of you.”

I want to dance like I once danced and then even more passionately than ever before!