I know you. I love you. Stop Dancing – You’re Free
Last year, I wrote:
I was born a people-pleaser. I can’t remember a time in life when I wasn’t anxious about keeping the important people in my life happy. Disapproval was all the discipline I needed. I “danced!” I used well-practiced steps to earn and keep approval. But dancing is exhausting and impossible. The most difficult times were when I had to make choices I knew would please some and displease others.
I danced to please . . . because I was terrified of rejection, loss of love, or abandonment. (You can read more here.)
Can you relate?
Are you afraid of rejection? Loss of love? Abandonment?
Do you carefully hide away your secrets, your past, your messiness, because—well because you’re convinced no one could love you if they really knew you.
A Timothy Keller quote begins:
“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear.”
Is that the best we can hope for? Superficial relationships because we’re afraid to be known?
Keller’s quote continues:
“But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”
But if you’re like me, you’ve danced to be loved. You’ve gazed longingly at superficial love. You’ve chased what isn’t at the expense of what is.
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked:
Who Am I?
(excerpt)Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and another tomorrow?
Am I both at once? In front of others, a hypocrite,
And to myself a contemptible, fretting weakling?
Or is something still in me like a battered army,
running in disorder from a victory already achieved?
Who am I? These lonely questions mock me.
Whoever I am, You know me, I am yours, O God.
So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? Galatians 4:9
Paul asked . . . why do you settle? Why do you try to fill your God-sized emptiness with things that will never satisfy?
The God who knows you . . . loves you with perfect unfailing forever love.
How precious is Your unfailing love, O God!
All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of Your wings.
Psalm 36:7
Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
how I praise You!
I will praise You as long as I live,
lifting up my hands to You in prayer.
Psalm 63:3–4
You and I don’t have to dance for God. In fact, His perfect love says…
I Know You. I Love You. You are Free.
I know your secrets, your past, and your messiness.
I know your failures, your sins.
I know you and love you.
Yes you!
I love you.
I forgive you.
Know me.
Love me.
Trust me.
Follow me.
Let me free you from dancing.
Let me meet your every need.
Let me give you life.
May you and I stop dancing for the superficial; for imperfect love when God is offering perfect unfailing love and life.
Photo Credit – BossFight.com