Thursday June 4th Reflection

“Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.” -Mark Twain

One of the things that I have found most challenging during the first weeks of lockdown was the live videos on a Sunday morning.

Earlier this year when a Life Group in my church had suggested live streaming my services I was horrified and gave a definite NO, twice in fact – they are persistent! So you can imagine how I felt at the prospect of Live services every Sunday on FaceBook.

The whole thought of it had pressed lots of buttons, uncomfortable ones, painful ones and it was the last thing I wanted to do. Why? because I didn’t want to look a fool, I was worried about what people would say about me, I was afraid of criticism and unkind messages. I was afraid of appearing a fool in front of my church and my community – of sharing my faith, of standing on the word of being exposed and allowing myself to be vulnerable – for God.

That was the game changer – I knew that I had to muster up all the courage I had and do a live service – because God was asking me to. My love for him gave me the strength to be a fool for him because that love was greater than my fears of what people would say.
Since then I have had personal criticism in Lockdown, I have had hurtful and unkind private messages from strangers who have judged me without even meeting me. The worst was Easter Saturday and delivering the word on Easter Sunday was excruciating – but my God gave me the strength and honoured my desire to please him, to be willing to be a fool for him rather than listen to the words of a stranger.

This morning I am reminded of this as I read 2 Samuel 22, King David has been scolded by his wife for dancing and rejoicing in the Lord in front of the servants and he replies to her criticism with these words;

‘I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the Lord’
So I will say amen to Davids words and I will continue to be a fool for Jesus and dance like nobody’s watching and live like its heaven on earth……