The last couple weeks we’ve been focusing on leadership and how it needs to partner with creativity. (You can watch our YouTube trainings or listen to our podcast on Spotify.)
So although we focus on the creative aspect, the thought occurred to me - what is the cost of NOT creating? Each time we aren’t doing something God’s way there is a consequence. Sometimes that consequence is small but sometimes it comes at a great cost.
Last year, in a Spiritual Direction appointment, the Lord told me that He wanted His daughter to dance for Him. It sounds simple right? God loves us to lavish and praise Him in ways that honor Him and in a way that we can do it with joy. So I told her this message and she said that she would love to dance for the Lord.
However, during our session the next month, I asked this beautiful woman if she was dancing for the Lord and she answered honestly "no." Now you might think that was the end of the story because it seemed like a simple request from the Lord. And at first thought you might even think that because the request seemed simple that to ignore this request would not amount to much, if anything.
BUT... a couple months later this dear woman broke her femur! She did not trip and fall, there was no actual incident, just a pain that began to get worse and worse. Doctors did not diagnose her during her first trip to the hospital. At her persistence, they finally found the fracture and her unfortunate ordeal began. After a long traumatic hospital stay and rehab she arrived back into the comfort of her home and we had another session. During that session the Lord pointed out to her that she didn’t dance for Him and then her femur broke as a result of disobedience. That sounded pretty harsh to me!
My first thought was “YIKES” and I wanted to make sure she indeed was hearing the Lord on this. So I asked her to give me a couple minutes to ask Him about this myself. It seemed like a pretty drastic revelation and I wanted to make sure that the Lord indeed meant to give this message to her. As I asked the Holy Spirit about this He very clearly said to me “but I preserved her hip.” Wow and wow!
I want to make this VERY clear - the Lord is NOT the one Who broke her femur. That is not how God works! But due to her free will, in deciding not to dance for the Lord, He temporarily removed His hand of protection and the enemy swooped in! The enemy is always lurking around waiting for us to be outside of God's protection so he can spring into action and reek havoc into our lives.
The beauty of God, in all His goodness, STILL protected her from further damage that the enemy wanted to inflict. It could have been much worse but God only removed His hand from her so far! God allows our free will to take over and do as we please. But because He knows how we will learn from it, He will always intervene at some point, when we turn back to Him. I believe had she done the simple act of dancing, even for just 5 mins, this long traumatic event would not have happened.
Again, this is not to say that everyone who breaks a bone is being disobedient. This was a specific message from God given to a specific person, to carry out a specific action that He wished from her and when that act was not carried out it resulted in a very real consequence.
Sometimes we can think a simple act of obedience is trivial but God is not trivial - He’s in the details. We are not capable of understanding all the ways of God but as leaders we need to trust Him, never doubt Him, and do what He asks of us because there is always a reason for it.
Not only did this dear woman learn an important lesson about God but now she’s been given a testimony about being obedient to Him so others can hear her story and understand that when God asks us to do something it has a purpose to it!!! The testimony of others can be a great training for each of us and a timely reminder of the importance of being obedient to God.
If you are reading this today, God wants to remind you to be obedient to Him. Whether He's asking you to dance in your living room for Him, or quit your job to move across the country, He has a very good reason for making this request of you. All of His ways have purpose and meaning.
And this is true about our need to be creative. We are each called to create because God, the Creator, made us in His image. Whatever creativity you've laid down, I encourage you to pick it up again. God is raising up leaders that are leading in His way.
God is intentional. Trust in the Lord and allow His Holy Spirit to be your guide at all times.
Partner with Him. Create with Him. Be obedient despite the cost.
He loves you dearly!