Saturday, March 27, 2010

What I’m Reading Today: Luke 9:1-36

When Mike and I lived in Denver, there was one place we enjoyed getting out to occasionally. It was a club named Charlies’. Charlies’ had a down to earth crowd, and it played two kinds of music: dance music and country music. I had never spent much time listening to country music - so the little time we spent at Charlies’ expanded my musical repertoire greatly.

One thing Charlies’ offered that was unusual was free dance lessons. I thought it would be something fun and new to try and – let’s face it – the price was right. So we did. We struggled through the experience a couple times before we decided to quit.

And what about the experience of those country dancing lessons made us throw in the towel?

There were lots of superficial reasons. Things like the lack of other participants that made us feel exposed on the dance floor, the quality of the music, and such – but ultimately there was one thing that did us in more than any other. That was we couldn’t figure out who was going to lead. Mike had had some prior experience so you would have thought it would have been him who led. Something about my alpha-dog nature, however, caused me to resist that. Since we couldn’t decide who would lead, we ended up walking away from the experience.

This notion of who is leading is important when it comes to a variety of issues in life. This is especially true when it comes to our spiritual life. Jesus knew that very clearly – for in talking with his disciples, Jesus said: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat – I am.”

There are times when I have had a similar experience in my spiritual walk as I had on the dance floor with Mike – times when my alpha-dog nature kicks in and tells me I’d rather walk away than allow Jesus to lead. Thankfully, I’ve learned more patience over the years and realized what I would be missing out if I didn’t set my ego and self-will aside and let Jesus lead. The more I’ve done that – the more I’ve enjoyed the dance in this music called life.

Today I would ask you: who is it that leads in your life? Are you still insisting on leading, or have you arrived at the place where you let God as revealed through Jesus take the lead?

Til next time…