Are you dancing with the Master?

A few years back, the Lord extended His hand to me and issued an invitation, “Come dance with Me.” He told me He was giving me a gift, and that gift was the ability to listen and to hear His voice.

You can’t be a good dancing partner unless you are able to follow the lead of your partner. Great dancers are totally synchronized with their partners as were Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

When I was a child, American Bandstand was all the rave. We would hurry home from school every afternoon to turn the TV on and watch the teenagers in poodle skirts, bobby socks and saddle oxfords dance to the latest hit music.

In those days, my dance partner was often a doorknob or a broom.

Many times in life, I took the lead away from my partner and got ahead of God by making wrong decisions, like getting married at 18 to someone my parents didn’t approve of, and turned out not to have the making of a good dance partner.

Ephesians 6:1-3 says: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.”

A recent television series called “Dancing with the Stars” puts emphasis on the fact you can be a star in your own right but to dance you have to listen to the professional dance instructor who has been chosen to teach you to dance.

You have to follow their advice and practice. Much preparation is required to persevere to the end of the competition.

Being asked to dance with the Master, the Creator of the universe, the ultimate teacher and lover of our soul, has opened the door to a lifetime of my learning to trust His lead.

I believe He has a plan for each life and a specific dance for which each of us are suited. Ephesians 4:7-8 declares: “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

“Therefore it says, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives and He gave gifts to men.’”