Your Whole Self Can Dance
My reading backlog is finally beginning to dwindle. I bought so many books during the pandemic my neighbors were probably wondering what in the world I was having delivered every day. Well I am getting to read some of these gems and the one I’m into right now is: A Deeply Formed Life by Pastor Rich Villodas. When I tell you I have highlighted and underlined almost every page. This books is rich. (no pun / kind of a pun intended… LOL.). This book is so refreshing AND real. I love how Pastor Villodas talks about the inner life and topics with a breadth, depth and practical steps I have hardly heard broached in most pulpits.
Take this quote from the book for instance: “The degree to which we are able to hold all of ourselves together is the degree to which we live with integrity, joy, and peace.” Rich Villodas, A Deeply Formed Life
The same day I read this quote, I had several conversations about the mental and emotional instability facing so many right now. The numbers are far greater than they were pre-pandemic days. Great (numerically) tragedies are resulting because there some parts of who they (we, me) we want to put on the shelf or push to the side rather than bring into the fullness of who they (we, me), are.
So many find it difficult to look at certain parts of themselves. Mental wellness and wholeness requires us to not cut off or ignore any part of our self, our emotions or our experiences. It is not weakness to acknowledge that we’re feeling weak. It is not shameful to acknowledge we experience shame. It is not wrong to admit not knowing how to move beyond a stuck place. If we do not bring ALL of who and where we are to God, it is only a matter of time before it all comes bursting out in some other way.
We are coming out of this pandemic, HALLELUJAH, THANK YOU JESUS! Let’s be sure to reflect, express, and correct the toll it took on our emotions and state of mind, heart and soul. MANY people are struggling in silence with a WIDE, “I’M GOOD” smile on their faces. They may even think no one really wants to hear that they are not good. Let us show the way to a courageous life by living vulnerably and honestly: living, life, making it from one day to the next is ONLY possible because God is with us. If we had only to depend on ourselves it would be a done deal.
Living this way – vulnerably & honestly with God – we can face the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful of our lives and still dance like nobody’s watching when our favorite song comes on.
I have to think this puts a smile on God’s face and He snaps His fingers to the music as we dance.
