The Goodness Report for August 2023
Released Sunday, August 06, 2023
Image Credit: VJM Productions
Have you ever had the opportunity to observe a dance class or watch professional dancers rehearse?
One of the most common words heard in a dance studio is, “again.”
I danced and performed on stages my entire childhood from the age of three through college. When learning new choreography, there are two modalities of rehearsal.
The first modality is incremental learning. This is where the dance routine is broken down step-by-step according to the rhythmic 3, 4, or 8 count.
In incremental learning mode, all the dancers take a spot on the floor with clear visibility in front of the mirror. Then, the choreographer begins performing the steps slowly while the dancers follow and test the flow of each movement with their own bodies. This is done section by section with no music at first.
Once the dancers learn each segment of the choreography then they practice that segment with the music. After each section is ran with and without music several times, the second modality of rehearsal begins.
Image Credit: Ilona Virgin and Ahmad Odeh (Unsplash)
This is called "Full Out."
As dancers, our first intention when learning new choreography is to understand, memorize, and perfect execution of the movement on beat, aka in harmony with the music. The mirror in the dance studio helps the dancer see themselves embodying the choreography. After countless times running the “choreo,” we switch to practicing performance mode.
To go “full out” is to give the movement everything you’ve got. This is full energy, passion, zeal, and power to embody the movement and perform it for others not just the mirror for correction and personal inspiration. There is no greater feeling for a dancer than learning your moves only to lose yourself performing them in perfect union with your mind, body, soul, fellow dancers, and the music in sync.
When the performance becomes second nature without having to think, freedom flows through the dancer and the joy to just be as you are within the dance feeds the soul.
Mastery Takes Time
I think, if I was not a dancer my entire adolescence, accepting the "failing-forward" and repetitious nature of ministry, entrepreneurship, marriage, motherhood, and being a visual artist would have been really hard! Moving through uncertainty for long periods of time is painful.
Ten years ago, when I launched The Clarissa Joan Experience, it was new choreography. At the time, I was also just two-years into my marriage.
I had no idea what additional steps and eight and 12 counts I would have to learn to be who God has called me to be “full out.”
Image Credit: Sarah Cerantes (Unsplash)
Becoming our best selves, maximizing our God gifted potential, and seeking to experience life as God imagines is not only a dance, but the performance of a lifetime.
Luke 16:10 says, “he who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much.”
Just like the dancer learning the routine step-by-step, God spiritually forms us for destiny every day of our lives one moment at a time. There are seasons when we feel like idiots learning brand new things. There are, also, seasons where we get to walk boldly in the full expression of the good work God has done in us thus far.
I’m reminded in this season that “God rewards the faithful!” Hebrews 11:6
Wherever you are, don’t quit. Mastering our call takes time, 10,000 hours and a lifetime of commitment to care.
The first time we hear God’s voice, we don’t know that we are hearing God’s voice.
This still small whisper of truth and blessed assurance comes in many forms. It sounds like a loud Earth-shaking thunderous clap, or it’s a surreal dream. Sometimes it’s a word that keeps appearing on billboards, in text messages, or random conversations with strangers and friends. It rarely resonates as God’s voice.
It can feel like a headache, agitation, serendipity, your pastor condemning you, your spouse trying to control you, or like life is falling apart.
This is why we pray for God to open the eyes of our heart:
“having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” Ephesians 1:18 - 19
The Goodness Report
Image Credit: You Version
In some way shape or form, we all start off like the boy Samuel confusing God with the love and guidance we are familiar with and able to recognize.
“And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.”
1 Samuel 3:8-9
One thing is for sure and two things for certain, if you are alive and you believe, God has choreography for your existence. There is a purpose and destiny steps that Heaven is waiting to teach you incrementally, so that you can fully express yourself as made in God’s image.
Secondly, the call is nothing to be played with. Once we learn our steps and accept that we are called, we must consistently practice and exercise ourselves according to Godliness. This is how we manifest the hope of God’s calling and discipline our character to answer our call “full out.”
I have Good News and I have bad news for you who love God, believe in God, and are called according to God’s purpose.
The bad news is this; being equipped for the call will hurt like hell. Period pooh!
Have you ever seen a dancer’s feet, especially after rehearsals?
Image Credit: Adam Littman Davis (Unsplash)
This is why we call it growing pains. Growing in your calling will be uncomfortable, disorienting, nerve-wrecking, unbearable at times, you will want to quit, you will have to die to self, you will carry a cross and be called to your own level of sacrifice like Jesus:
“Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24
The Good News is that like Jesus when we surrender to our cross, we receive resurrection power from The Father, and this is our true service to all of creation.
Having courage to spiritually practice holiness and face areas of death, despair, and lovelessness in the world fills us up and imparts us with the resurrection power to embody our call, “full out.”
We've moved into a “full out” season here at The Being Academy! Read all about the great things happening here.
Be sure to let us know how we can serve you best by taking our "Reimagine Church" Survey here.
If you have been struggling towards your destiny, purpose, and calling step by step,
we pray this is a “full out” season for you too.
Don’t give up! Keep going over your steps again and again until you get it right! God will not forsake you. Jesus died for your right to be seen, heard, cared for, and loved always in every imaginable.
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:37-39
Be faithful, be lovely, be true,
