A Dancer’s Secret November 5, 2009

    

  I was never a dancer.  I played every sport a girl could play (I even played on a boys baseball team one year) but  I never seemed to have the grace needed for dance.  Dancers have always impressed me though.  One thing that always befuddled me was how well trained dancers could spin around so quickly without getting vertigo.  I would spin around once and feel ready to puke.  One time I boldly took a Latin dance class and I learned the secret to mastering spins was a technique called spotting.  Any dancer would recognize the term, but for those who don’t, spotting entails picking a stationary focal point on the wall (a clock, a hook, a painting, etc) and turning your body while your eyes stay focused on your spot, therefore immobilizing the head.  When your body has turned as far as it can, the head quickly spins around and immediately back to its focal point, while the body then follows.  Because your eyes are on the focal point the entire time, your body is able to do something that normally causes vertigo.  A simple, yet effective technique. 

     This technique, when applied to our walks, works much the same way.  As I read through Nehemiah, I was surprised how many times the text mentions God as their focal point.  As if rebuilding a burned down, destroyed wall wasn’t daunting enough, they were met with constant doubt and ridicule from their enemies.  Despite it all, they continued to cooperate together and with God to accomplish the task.  The believed “the God of heaven [would] give [them] success” (Neh 2:20).   At the beginning of chapter four when Saballat taunts the Jews for rebuilding the wall, Nehemiah responds by praying to God for redress, and then he and the builders “work with all their heart” (v6).   Just two verses down the same thing happens: Saballat threatens to attack Jerusalem, and the Jewish people respond by praying to God then posting a guard (v9).  In both situations, as well as throughout the book of Nehemiah,  we see how during a situation that could feel like uncontrollable spinning, they simplified the task by keeping their eyes on the only reliable focal point and meeting faith with action.   Throughout this life, we will undoubtedly have trouble and maybe even feel like we’re spinning.  However, if we keep our eyes on the Lord to be the provider of ALL our needs, he will protect us from vertigo or even falling over.

   So you may be wondering how this relates with cooperation?  The definition of cooperation means “working together for a common goal.”  Because the Lord is the captain of our ship, the CEO of our lives, the King of our hearts, and our heavenly “boss,” we have to cooperate with Him and trust that with Him as a focal point we can learn to gracefully make beautiful spins across the dance floor of this life.

Reflection:

• What distractions become your focal point in life?  Your career? Relationships? Busyness? Pursuit of Happiness?
• What practical way can you remind yourself to stop and refocus on the Lord?  Setting an alarm for prayer time?
• What better ways can you “cooperate” with the Lord as the ruler of you heart?  How have you been non-cooperative or resistant to His will for you?
• What “spin” makes you dizzy?  What makes you feel out of control and helpless?  Recognize it, and ask the Lord to help you in that particular situation. 

Prayer:

Father, thank you for being a stationary focal point.  You are the same in the past, present, and future, when nothing else is.  Help me to remind myself to keep my eyes on you, and be willing to cooperate with Your will, even if its harder than my own.  Help me to eliminate false focal points.  I ask this in your Son’s name.  Amen.

Power Verses:

Isa 28:29;  Psa 123:2;  Psa 25:15;  2 Cor 1:12 MSG;  Isa 46:3-4;  Psa 119:15

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For a printable PDF version–> a dancer secret