Follow

I was asked "how do we stay true to the mission of the church?"  It was a 5-page question, with some suggested answers of how to know if a church has succumbed to mission-creep.  If God were not actively leading his Church in its many manifestations and flavors, we'd be more urgently parsing doctrine and evaluating the expenditure of our church energy/money/time/focus against our church vision and mission statements.  We'd be following His guidelines for how to be (corporately) the church and (individually) Christians, and we'd be doing the right thing to make sure we're "on mission."  We'd be following Him.

I am a dancer, though, and I have access to another definition for Following.  When I lead in swing dancing or waltzing, my partner and I are in a wonderful tension.  When I am leading at my best, I'm aware of how my Follow is responding to my indications, and I'm sensitive to what they're communicating through touch and gesture.  When I am following at my best, I anticipate what my Lead may be communicating next and we work together to get me into the right position for the subsequent steps in the pattern.  I'm not insisting on doing some steps that I *thought* he might be leading me into.  I'm also not floppy, being limply thrown from one sequence to the next.

When I follow God, I get the sense that it's like He's asking me to dance with Him.  

It's unlike following a map.  It's unlike following directions.  It's unlike following a religious observance or obeying a creed. 

When God asks me to dance, he doesn't ask me if I know all the steps to certain dance patterns, and then when I mess up in the follow he doesn't frustratedly call for the music to stop and restart from the beginning.  He's not all stiff and severe, hoping that I'll know how to follow his cues.  

I always get the sense, and more so as I get older, that he's exuberant with the dance.  He comes to me with a huge grin and holds out an inviting hand and is already backing* onto the dance floor as I come up off the chair so I have to hurry a little to get into the frame as his leadership gets me not only into position but also syncs me to his rhythm.  He leads and I follow, and sometimes I flub it up, and he grins and says that it's okay, he's got me.  And he tries other moves that I can follow, and we dance.  And he's grinning.  And I'm his bride, and that's my mission.

*I'm chagrined to say that He's not all that dignified as he asks me to follow Him in the dance.  Not only is He grinning like a fool in love, He is (in my mind) actually wiggling His booty in time to the music.  It's embarrassing.