Dancing in the Grace Place

I have a confession to make...I've been dancing. That's right, my very Baptist self and I have been dancing. You see, these past few months have been unbelievably difficult. My heart has struggled many times just to keep beating, my lungs to keep breathing...tough days. The challenges of a huge move, new home, new church, new people--new can be achy when you long for the old. Your mind plays tricks on your heart and convinces you that the woman you saw driving past on that unfamiliar road was most definitely your friend from home, but why was she in a red suv when hers is white? Frustration comes when you can't find your family's favorite cereal on the foreign grocery shelf. And tears flow when you realize the place you called home for 10 years has now become a vacation spot. Throw in the everyday life of teens and littles, the rigors of homeschool, the 15 hour distance between mom and freshman daughter, along with the rollercoaster ride that is adoption and you find yourself in a very rocky place. As a matter of fact, it was more than all that. I found myself in the place where my trust was betrayed, answers were delayed, my emotions were played and my nerves were completely frayed. But it is in this place that I've seen grace. God has graced me with His presence in the rocky places. And just as our God is known for doing, His presence changes everything. He transformed that rocky place into a place of grace. And there in the grace place I found my soul dancing. I've been studying David and am fascinated with his reaction to the return of God's Ark to the Tabernacle in Jerusalem. As God's presence, represented by the Ark of His Covenant, moved before David, the Bible says he danced "with all his might." David's soul rejoiced in the presence of the Lord. I think I know how he must have felt. He was in the grace place. Through the struggle of the past few months, God's presence has been so real, so vivid, so kind and gentle that it moves my soul to dance in the grace place. So, if you see me standing still, just know on the inside I'm dancing with all my might.