Deep-End Discipleship

May the Lord cause you to increase and enrich your love for each other and for everyone in the same way as we also love you. May the love cause your hearts to be strengthened, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his people. Amen. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 CEB The other day my roommate and I were in Hobby Lobby looking for some Christmas decorations. We were walking up and down the aisles trying to find some good decorations to help us get in the holiday spirit. Every aisle we went down we found a billion things we loved (of course because it’s Hobby Lobby). As we walked down this one aisle, for probably the 5th time, I said something along the lines of “oh man everything is so cute, this is dangerous, maybe we shouldn’t have come here”. Right after I said it, a woman in the same aisle said “I know! Isn’t Hobby Lobby the best!”. We joked about how much money we were going to spend, and how we definitely shouldn’t have come to...

“David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.” - 2 Samuel 6:5 NRSV - “When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, 'Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.'” - Mark 6:22 NRSV - I’ll admit it. I’m not a dancer. I lived through the days of ballroom dancing, square dancing, disco, country-line dancing, creative dance, expressionist dance, jive, hip-hop, and grunge. I am not a dancer. My body moves to the rhythm of music in ways never intended by human beings. And yet, you will see my toe tapping in church, my head bobbing in the car, and hear my whispers singing along in with the choir. My one brush with liturgical dance in a worship service proved near disastrous and will never be spoken of in public. And yet, I love to dance. There is something about dance that is freei...