Mikki's Blog - Living in the Grace and Love of God » Joy http://mikkiblogs.com Spiritual encouragement - relationship with God Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:09:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 A Time to Laugh http://mikkiblogs.com/a-time-to-laugh/ http://mikkiblogs.com/a-time-to-laugh/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:52:38 +0000 Mikki http://mikkiblogs.com/?p=590 Do you think God ever laughs in pleasure? Can you picture Jesus laughing while interacting with people? Many of you might have difficulty seeing Divinity in those ways. Yet most of us can quickly conjure up images of God being angry or sending bolts of lightning down on us in response to our sinfulness.
If we humans are created in God’s image and He gave us the full range of emotions, don’t you suppose His emotions also included joy that overflows into laughter? I do. In fact, I think it would be profitable for all of us to take a few moments and imagine God smiling at us in love and pleasure. Galatians tells us that we are God’s handiwork and just as He reviewed His works of creation as recorded in Genesis and said, “It is good,” I believe He looks at us and is pleased with His work of creation.
The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us in Ecclesiastes 3: 4 that there is a time to laugh. St. Iraneus wrote that the glory of God is man fully alive. I believe that a fully alive individual knows how to laugh!
It is appropriate for all of us to stop and evaluate our ability to laugh and have fun. Sometimes life’s painful circumstances have taught us that we don’t deserve to have fun. Religion can teach us that fun isn’t holy. If you are one of those individuals who have difficulty playing and having fun, today is the day you should begin to challenge that mindset. Allow God to bring healing into your heart through fun and laughter.
Laughter is an important part of life. Proverbs 17: 22 says that “A merry heart does us good, like a medicine.”  Laughter brings healing. It is music to our souls. Laughter connects our soul and spirit.
So today I want to make you smile and laugh!
The following is a clip from our children’s presentation at church on Dec. 20. The little star of this clip is Caleb Bullard, son of Todd and Amy Bullard. Todd and Amy weren’t sure Caleb would actually go up on the stage, but oh, did he ever. He not only went up on the stage, he took over the stage.  His performance seems to have said, “Here I am world! Enjoy me!” I rather think God loved seeing his little son enjoy himself. This clip doesn’t show his full body which would have made it even better if you could have seen his little side steps, but click away and smile.  

Caleb Has a Great Time at Grace House from Eddie Lawrence on Vimeo.

 

]]> http://mikkiblogs.com/a-time-to-laugh/feed/ 1 A Time to Dance http://mikkiblogs.com/a-time-to-dance/ http://mikkiblogs.com/a-time-to-dance/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:06:14 +0000 Mikki http://mikkiblogs.com/?p=439  

1 To everything there is a season,
      A time for every purpose under heaven: 
       2 A time to be born, 
And a time to die; 
      A time to plant, 
And a time to pluck what is planted; 
       3 A time to kill, 
And a time to heal; 
      A time to break down, 
And a time to build up; 
       4 A time to weep, 
And a time to laugh; 
      A time to mourn,
And a time to dance…   Ecclesiastes 3

I was walking from the kitchen to my study a moment ago. It is early here in Alabama. Six a.m. 

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la….I found myself singing. And then I thought “I feel like dancing.” I considered making a little twirl through the den, but then I thought about the half-full coffee cup that I had in my hand. Better not.

Having just written about how there is a time to mourn, I realized that maybe today I should write on the time to dance.

Is dancing evil as some suggest? Is there a place for dancing in our private celebrations? Is there a place for dancing in the church?

Dancing is one of the things that some of the body of Christ has allowed to be stolen from its expressions of worship. We sterilize our mental pictures of what it looked like when Jesus went to the Synagogue. It was all serious, right?  Actually the Jewish worship and Jewish life of Jesus’ time was filled with celebration and dancing. They knew how to have a good party – at God’s command.

2 Samuel 6:14 says that King David danced before the Lord with all his might. Literally, he twirled around as the ark was brought back to Jerusalem. There was reason to celebrate.

I have some old 8 mm tapes of my childhood. One of them is a recording of me doing the twist. Now for those of you too young to know what the twist is, maybe you should pull it up on YouTube. Chubby Checker recorded a song called The Twist back in 1960, and it became a dancing sensation. The song topped the charts and then was re-released in ’61-’62 and topped the charts again. A whole list of songs about the twist followed. Interestingly, Chubby lost 30 pounds demonstrating his song!

Anyway, back to my point, I was about 3 or 4 in this recording and my daddy was cheering me on while I unashamedly did the twist. I was smiling and twisting. Little girls love to dance for their daddies.

Somehow we have been duped into thinking that if the world incorrectly uses something, then we, as God’s children, had better stay far away from it. But I find that the scripture teaches us that Satan is an imitator. He steals from God’s legitimate gifts and perverts them. But there is a legitimate expression of the gift.

Is dance a legitimate expression of love, joy, celebration, and worship? 

Well, I remember thinking a few years ago that I made a better Charismatic than a Baptist (I have been both and actually am now something of a combination) because I could dance in church! Having been a cheerleader in high school and the president of the Pep Club, I could jump, shout, and dance with the best of them. But I had never, ever danced in church.

My daughter recently got married and we had a dance after the ceremony. She and her new husband had the first dance. Then she waltzed with her daddy. And on it went from there. We just had a genuinely good time enjoying the atmosphere of love and celebration. I had several people comment to me that it was the most “fun” wedding they had ever attended. From the very young to the very old, we celebrated together with food, fun, fellowship and dance.

There are times when there is no better way to express the joy inside your heart than to dance. Maybe dancing is one expression of a body, soul, and spirit in union.

Hey, we have a Waltzing class beginning at church next week and I hear that the instructors might work in a little line dancing, too. I signed up. I found out at my daughter’s wedding that my friends – from young to old –  had held out on me. When the young people broke into the Electric Slide, my friends, old and young, knew how to slide. I felt duped! But I decided to give it a try. It was just fun. We all enjoyed a real celebration together. 

Personally, I am so glad that a time to mourn is followed by a time to dance. There are real, necessary expressions of sorrow and real, necessary expressions of joy.

Well, I’m finished with my coffee so maybe I’ll just twirl a little. After all, daddies love to see their little girls dance and my heavenly Daddy is watching. 

 

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