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When God Asks for Everything





Have you ever loved something so much that you couldn’t imagine living without it? I choreographed dance routines in my sleep. I tapped my fingers on my schoolbooks like they were feet, planning footwork to whatever song was stuck in my head at the time. I proudly told everyone I would become a dance choreographer someday, and nothing was holding me back. But then, everything changed.


“I can’t dance anymore… The doctor didn’t even give me a choice. He told me I was ruining my feet every time I danced. In that moment I tried hard not to cry. ... I am angry at my body for limiting me from doing anything today. I don’t want [disability] to run my life, but it sure has gotten the best of me the last few days … I feel like … collapsing.” – 15-year-old Journal


The doctor told me my feet were growing in the wrong way due to high impact caused by my dance shoes – particularly, my clogging shoes (clogging shoes are like tap shoes with an extra metal flap under the toes). I knew my feet hurt when I danced, but didn’t everyone’s feet hurt? Wasn’t it just a part of the sacrifice to be a good dancer? Apparently, not.


On November 4, just days after my fourteenth birthday when I performed an original dance with my best friend, I was wheeled into the operating room for double foot surgery. I emerged with knee-high casts for two months. My life felt like it was over. But thankfully, the recovery went smoothly, and within months I was back on the dance floor ready to work harder than ever.


Yet, after surgery, dance felt… different.


“I love dance … that’s what gets me up in the mornings and keeps me awake at night … [but] I am finally giving up this area of my life. I used to think I already “gave God my feet” but this time it’s more than my feet. I am giving my desires to God … I am still very confused, somewhat frustrated and aching on the inside. But … I am happier and more content now than I’d ever be dancing in the best costume to the best songs with my best friends.” – cont’d


I am summarizing my journey for the sake of a brief article, but the main point is, God told me to give up dance. It wasn’t an immediate decision, believe me. I could have forced it. I could have kept at it. It wasn’t that I was all of a sudden, something of an awful dancer. But my desire to perform was slowly dying, and oddly enough, so was my technique. Little did I know what was about to happen the following year – the big change that occurred in A Time to Trust – and my priorities would have to shift.


When I gave up dance, God replaced it with something even more valuable – because that’s what he does. He doesn’t tell us to give up something only to sit back, cross His arms, and laugh as we stare at our empty calendar, because He cannot be anything but good. Sometimes He wants us to give up something because


· we value it more than we value our relationship with God (idolatry)

· we value it more than we care for the people around us (selfishness)

· it is a distraction that is leading us down a path of destruction (sin)


The last one seems extreme, but it very well could be the case. Proverbs 14:12 tells us “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” God used a surgery to change my life direction. If you sense He is wanting you to release something such as a friendship, or seemingly harmless leisure, I beg you to let it go. If you do, your purpose will no longer be tied down to a worldly activity, or person, or lifestyle, but an eternal Anchor that will never be hinged on your personal success. You will be more fulfilled than ever.


Do you have to let go of the one thing that is holding you back from going all in with God? You get to make that choice.


“All of us, sooner or later, go through a season of no purpose. We feel as if God is making up his mind about what to tell us our purpose is… when [in] reality, He knows exactly what to do and when to tell us. God knew … I would go to a foot doctor and ... despite the fact I have always loved [dance], He takes it away.” – cont’d


Now, I won’t tell you exactly what happened after I surrendered dance to God, because you’ll read about that in future books. But trust me, it is incredibly better than if I had forced my own will! Stay tuned for more books!


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