« I ALMOST CAN READ ENGLISH | Main | THE COST OF RECONCILIATION »
March 01, 2007
THE DANCE OF THE WONDED
The Dance of the Wounded
A slave and his master went on to hunting. The slave was a believer and the master was not. While they are hunting the slave missed the pigeon bird and he was upset and start cursing. Then he realized the sin he was committing and he started confessing his sin with real regret.
At this, the master said, “Why are you a Christian? All this worry after you curse! Look at me? I curse, no worries. I do not curse no worries.” The slave could not respond in any way to his master’s charge. They had not been talking for a while. Then the master hit one pigeon bird with his bullet and got it. The pigeon was dead. Then sometime passed before the slave hit a bird. And he got it on the leg. The pigeon limped but fly away. “Master, I have got an answer to your earlier charge.” the slave said, “you are like the dead pigeon you have killed earlier. You are dead to life in Christ. You do not know how bad sin is, and what it costed God. But I am like the wounded pigeon I got. Because I am alive, I am feeling the pain. I am feeling the pain but I am still flying. I am feeling the pain I limp but I dance. Because I know I am alive and continue to be alive. Though Sin, sometimes, making me sad and limp I dance and fly. I am hurting and may be continue to get hurt by my sin but I am alive, and dancing”
Yes sin and pain are hurting us. Sin is bad, it separated us from God. Pain is bad it makes us complain. We are wounded by: our sin, Other peoples’ sin, and the pain and the injustice in the world. If you see the power of the groaning, the pain and the sin; it can sound hopeless. How can a Christian be happy in the midst of all this pain? In other words but figuratively, how can a wounded person dance?
I think we need to learn to dance or in other words celebrate in the midst of all the pain and the sin. Let me take you to some interesting passages in the Bible. David, a man of God, the typology of Christ, the man after God‘s own heart, the resume can continue…. sinned; he sinned terribly. It was time to have a heart to heart talk with Nathan, the prophet. He was confronted by his sin. He said, “I have sinned before God.” That is the reality. At this painful confronting reality David shows us a new way on how to deal with our sin.
Though this passage is about David confessing his dreadful sin there are twenty two references to God of the 18 verses (God, you…). That is pretty amazing. Twenty two references of God in the 18 verses of the Psalms. I think this passage is about celebrating who God is in the midst of a painful failure. Yes I am the one who has done the sin but that should not above the God I love and worship. It is a choice, a very serious and significant choice to celebrate God even in the midst of my failure; or to worship my sin or other peoples’ sin above him. See what David says about God and David’s relationship to God in the midst of Sin:
Generous in love--God, give grace! Huge in mercy (v 1)
He knows that the God he worships is generous in love. He also knows he is huge in mercy. There is a reason to dance in the midst of sin and regret. The God we worship is generous and huge in moving towards the sinner. He comes to the sinner, because he is profoundly loving, and devotedly giving.
4You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
A man of God who knows how to dance in the midst of sin, celebrates God’s truthfulness in the midst of his and other’s failure.. Though we do not sin to magnify God’s truthfulness our failure always proves God’s inflexible truthfulness and love.
8Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing
Look, David is asking for dance in the midst of sin. Because he knows the God he worships is above and beyond his sin. God can make us dance in the midst of sin, brokenness and pain. I love it, because when it comes to the ultimate meaning of life, it is not our failure that defines us, but it is the fact that the God we worship loved us even when we are sinners. We worship an awe-inspiring God!
10God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a genesis week from the chaos of my life
Yes Because of the God we worship is the God who makes a Genesis in our lives we can celebrate. We can dance The God we worship is a God of change, real change. Because it is only the God whom we worship can bring a genesis transformation to any situation we are in we can celebrate and start looking beyond our sin.
12Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
13Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
God makes teachers out of sinners. God restores sinners, when he restores it is a total restoration:
The sinner becomes a teacher of righteous teacher
The persecutor becomes a prisoner for the gospel of Jesus Christ
The quiet person will shout in praise
God’s restoration makes a genuine difference.
When God restores you, you can not remain the same.
Amen! There is your reason to dance and celebrate.
14Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life--giving ways.
15Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.
God can give life in the midst of death. Yes there is reason to celebrate. Because God always punishes sin, he did that in Jesus Christ. But the awful results of sin are under the God who changes the course of a sinful human history.
. Sin shuts us up. We stop functioning in the midst of sin. God who is above and beyond sin brings freedom from sin and its effects. He knows how to bring life in the midst of death and destruction. Yes we can dance.
17I learned God--worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.
Yes we are shattered but we can not escape God’s notice. But the shattering power of sin is not outside of the God who deserves worship.
18Make Zion the place you delight in,
repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls.
The God who heals. Yes there is a reason to celebrate.
19Then you'll get real worship from us,
acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls
they can heave onto your altar!
Because God heals the broken we can dance even when we are hurt by our sin and the pain of this world. Sinners like you and me can celebrate because it is only who comes to us in the midst of our sin.
There is another passage I want to plug in before I move on and conclude, in the book of Zachriah chapter 3 there is an amazing passage:
Joshua, God’s servant, was in sin. But see what God says about him:
2 The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?"
3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes."
Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you."
Yes in the midst of sin and the wound that is caused by it there is a reason to dance. First the author of sin is rebuked by God. The God who chose us, and stood for us in the midst of sin, never allows sin and its author, namely the devil be the ultimate winner. That is more than enough reason to dance in the midst of sin. Because the God we worship is above ours and others sin. He comes to us while we are in the midst of our sin and do not know what to do (Romans 5:8). It is only God who fall in love with sinners. Yes we are terribly wounded and continue to be wounded with our sin but the God we serve comes in the midst of our sin and makes healing a certainty. Yes I do dance in the midst of sin and pain.
I know it is not easy to be in the midst of failure, and face the guilty accusation of our own heart and others. My upbringing has a lot of pain and suffering. But the God I worship did not leave me there. Some of the pain is caused by my own sinfulness some of it has caused by the sinful world and people whom I am realted. But if I can tell you one story my story is God’s coming to me while others are staying away. God is staying with me while others going away. It reminds me of the Gospel song by Yohe, “He knows my heart.” The fact that God always chose to hang on with me has become a reason for me to dance, dance with deep joy, in the most unlikely circumstances. I have never liked my mistake and my sin, but I have learned to look to my God who makes a beautiful design from a dirt person like me. Because God has decided to put a treasure in a jar (breakable) of clay like me I have always tried to focus on who God is than on what my sin or failures are. Believe me I know my sin, just like David, I know my short comings. But because I have seen people, including my family back home, to remind me that very diligently, regret has not been the major part of my life. But the God who is the best designer, who brings out beauty out of dirty ashes is always my focus. I am fighting with tears as I write this to you, which story to share you. Because I have seen a lot of miracle, God made me dance even when I am wounded. Let me share you this one; because my mom was dead it was not easy for dad to raise us up. As you know, it is Africa, and there is not a lot of the so called “Parental techniques.” In many parts of my beautiful continent a child’s behavior is left to the Parent’s harsh punishment and the child’s being good at the help of instincts. I was not lucky to have the later one in my upbringing and I had the harsh punishment of my dad who has had his own upbringing under the harsh punishment of a step mom. When I was in eight grade I became the worst child that can be. My dad after harshly slapping me with the things that is made of leather said, “Worku, your life is full of problems. You are no more my child and I am no more your dad.” that was a heart breaking news. For I, unlike all of my friends, did not have a mom. What worse can happen to a child than being disowned by his dad? In a week after this incident I went to the school chapel to disturb with some friends who are like gangs. Then I heard the message from Jn.1:12 that I can become God’s child. That day I found my real dad. And he is the best dad you can find. Since then I have spent many nights. Some of them very awful, but I know God was there and still here. That is my main reason to dance. If God can become a father to the worst of the sons of human being, his presence must make me dance even in the midst of pain. I have been wounded many times. By people close and not so close. I have been wounded many times, by a situation caused by my broken nature. But God has decided to be in and with me, and that makes me dance and smile. I smile when I look many of the unknown future, because all of my unknown and dreadful past has been filled with dance because of the God I worship. I know the future is more beautiful. I do not only hope to dance; I know I will dance, because God is in the process of doing “complete renovation in me” to transform me into the likeness of his son. He also decided to be “delighted in doing good for me.” Oh I am happy I am a Christian! My God rocks!
| By kishawork2 | 12:03 AM
