a song for the dance

I have delayed for some time now my discussion of a topic that is, in my opinion, essential to participation in the dance of lowliness. The reason for this delay is because I have lacked the time and mental energy to do the topic justice. But, I am now 3 months (and 9 entries) into this blog, and I can’t wait any longer.

So here it is:
If you want to dance, it helps to have a song to dance to.
But for the dance of lowliness, not just any song will do.

For well over a year now, my own participation in the dance of lowliness has been dramatically enhanced by a brief “refrain” that is more poetic than musical. But, I’ll refer to it as a “song” for the sake of the metaphor. The refrain is as follows:

What humbles me helps me
What lowers me lifts me
For when I am weak
Then I am strong.

The idea flows from II Corinthians 12, where Paul described his painful struggle with a “thorn in the flesh.” He acknowledged that the purpose of his suffering was to keep him from being “too elated” by the spiritual experiences he was having. Though he begged the Lord to deliver him, the Lord let his suffering continue, supplying these words as an explanation: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” And I would suggest that Paul’s response to this revelation provides the biblical basis for the dance of lowliness:

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.

What sets genuine followers of Christ apart from the adherents of any other religion where folks lay claim to the truth, testify to life transformation of some sort, enjoy some form of spiritual community, or involve themselves in humanitarian aid? I think that perhaps this may be one distinguishing feature: folks who follow Jesus can dance when they suffer. Just as Jesus embraced suffering “for the joy set before him,” and just as the apostles rejoiced that they were “found worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name,” so Christ followers throughout history have heard in the message of the gospel a song that they can dance to, even in, and perhaps especially in the midst of hardship.

Unfortunately, many men and women who claim to represent the way of the kingdom are pointing people to a false understanding of what the gospel accomplishes in our lives. They would suggest that following Christ diminishes our suffering and reduces our life problems. The thinking goes like this: the better you get to know Christ and the more faithfully you follow His teaching, the less hardship and pain you will experience. In fact, this idea often drowns out the sweet music of the kingdom, muffling the lyrics of a song that brings hope to those who are suffering and joy to those who are in pain.

If the gospel is about eliminating pain and hardship in people’s lives, then no wonder a large number of men and women who think that they are Christians are confounded by their inability to escape from their suffering. The harsh realities of life often leave these folks wondering why they can’t hear the music; why they can’t find a rhythm they can dance to.

But just as a businessman walking the noisy streets of Chicago needs to adjust his hearing in order to recognize the faint sound of the cricket chirping in a sidewalk planter, so many followers of Jesus need to adjust their hearing in order to recognize the life-giving song of the kingdom.

The song beckons us to find grace in the midst of our suffering. It points us to the possibility that those difficult events or encounters that lower us somehow, that chafe at our pride and choke our self-esteem, that shake our sense of identify and stimulate our insecurities, are really helps in our journey heavenward. What humbles me helps me, and what lowers me lifts me. Though our society encourages us to delight in our strength and celebrate our success, the lowly way of the kingdom scandalizes us with the call to rejoice in our weakness and find God in our failures.

So we find in the gospel a song to dance to. Following Jesus inevitably brings us down the path of suffering. And some of us will walk this path for the vast majority of our journey here on earth. Whether we ache with our own hardships and personal struggles, or whether we share in the pain of others, or whether we groan with creation in eager anticipation of a redemption that is yet to come for this lost world, those of us who follow Jesus must know that we will suffer quite often. But the good news is that those things which make us suffer can also make us dance; that is, if we have ears to hear the lowly song of the kingdom.

The Water Song
(from Hannah Hurnard's Hinds Feet on High Places)

Come, oh come! Let us away –
Lower, lower every day,
Oh, what joy it is to race
Down to find the lowest place.
This the dearest law we know –
"It is happy to go low."
Sweetest urge and sweetest will,
"Let us go down lower still."
Hear the summons night and day
Calling us to come away.
From the heights we leap and flow
To the valleys down below.
Always answering to the call,
To the lowest place of all.
Sweetest urge and sweetest pain,
To go low and rise again.