Sunday, December 12, 2010

Lead the Celebration

Sometimes, when your dad has prophetic gifts, and he gives your sister a word you ask for one too. Sometimes he says, "no, nothing, oh wait...." then he gives you the most ridiculous vision.

He tells you he sees you leading a marching band. A high school marching band. A black high school marching band. You think you have an interpretation for this, but as you pray on it the Lord reminds you of things. He reminds you of all those Labor days, waiting for your High school marching bands turn (you played in the drum line). You were always jealous of the band from the other side of town.

The black marching band always looked like it was more fun to be in then yours. It probably was. The drum majors would break from straight up left, right, left, right and would get down. Then slowly the boogie would spread from the drum majors, to the woodwinds, to the trumpets, to the drum line, until finally the tubas were swinging in ways that look anatomically impossible.

The thing you remember about watching this marching band, and the bands at the schools you grew up to teach at, is that each person has their own dance, that joins together to form one huge celebration. No one worries about if they look stupid, or whether they are "doing it right" they just boogie, and trust that the boogies combined form one giant celebration. It looked so free, and so freeing.

You realize as an adult that some of those kids probably didn't have a lot to celebrate, that the band marched in t-shirts and shorts because the school couldn't afford uniforms. But somehow it didn't stop the celebration. It didn't even slow it down. And God lays on your heart that He is asking you to lead the celebration in your life.

When the Craigslist car starts, when the baby sleeps mostly through the night, when you have enough money to pay your bills and a little extra to put in the savings account. Boogie down, praise the Lord, don't worry about what it looks like. Freedom is promised in Christ. So get into that freedom, and lead that celebration.

Oh and in leading the celebration, I wrote this piece for my church's advent book http://www.1027church.com/wp-content/uploads/advent.pdf

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