Patience and Pointe Shoes: When Life Doesn't Move Fast Enough

It was a traumatic experience. I was terrified. I was certain I was going to be lost in the sewer system forever if I wasn't rescued in time. I was three years old and I had...well...I thought I was grown up enough and didn't want to use the training seat...so I had...fallen into...the toilet! I remember screaming for help and my mom running in only to sit down on the floor laughing hysterically at my predicament and toddler trauma!

Humbling story, but true. There are times when life just doesn't move fast enough and we rush ahead trying to do something we're not quite ready for - kind of like the proverbial bull in the china shop and usually with the same results: chaos and devastation!

I see this often as a dance teacher, especially when it comes to students wanting to dance on pointe. It's so hard to say "not yet" to students who ask me if they can go on pointe. But as a dancer and teacher, I know the danger of allowing them to go on pointe before they have developed the muscle strength and control they need. If I let them dance on pointe before they are ready, it can and will create lifelong muscular and skeletal issues and injuries.

We live in a culture where everyone seems to be in a rush. Seven year olds are dressing like teenagers, teenagers are jumping into sexual relationships, adults are rushing through life fueled by Dunkin Donuts drive-thru caffeine shots. A world stuck on fast forward. Yet in the middle of all of this commotion, underneath all of the noise and chaos, a voice is whispering: "Be still and know that I am God" "Wait on the Lord and He will strengthen your heart" (Ps 27:14)

In the original Hebrew, the word for "wait" doesn't mean sitting idly, doing nothing. It has the sense of waiting on the Lord almost the way a waiter or waitress in a restaurant waits on a customer. How can we actually "wait" on God? He doesn't really need anything from us right? I mean, hey - He's God - Creator of the Universe, parting the Red Sea, all that. What could He possibly need from us?

Perhaps, He needs what only we can give - our hearts, our undivided attention, a few quiet moments where we simply focus our thoughts on Him. Some time where we shut off the itunes, close the laptop, turn off the TV, silence the cell phone and simply sit in His presence - quiet and listening. Some time where we stop trying to hurry our lives up and simply listen to what life, to what God may be trying to speak to us.

Last Saturday, after almost three and a half hours of intense dance rehearsals, one of my NECPAC teachers and the company dancers chose to give God some time. In the middle of the frantic race to get pieces "production ready" they chose to slow down and simply "wait" on the Lord by dancing only for Him. I wasn't even there to see it - but I heard about it - I heard about the tears that came as God's presence transformed a basement dance room into the Holy of holies. It was powerful, it was beautiful, it was the presence of God communicating His love to a handful of dancers who took the time to "wait" on Him.

So, thank you Kaitlyn and thank you NECPAC dancers, for reminding me to stop trying to make life move faster and instead; to be still, to listen, to wait on the Lord for what He is speaking to my heart.