{"id":27782,"date":"2020-03-14T03:30:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T10:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=27782"},"modified":"2020-03-12T16:41:35","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T23:41:35","slug":"march-14-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2020\/03\/14\/march-14-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"March 14, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe<\/em>.\u201d Proverbs 29:25<\/p>\n

A Beach and a Boy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Walk His Way Revisited<\/em><\/p>\n

First Posted March, 2014<\/em><\/p>\n

A Recipe for Freedom<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Take one 8-year-old boy and place him on a long, empty beach.<\/p>\n

Surround him with cliffs that echo on one side,<\/p>\n

And the wide, endless ocean on the other side.<\/p>\n

Set him loose, barefooted.<\/p>\n

Watch him run.<\/p>\n

Hear him yell and scream and laugh and sing<\/p>\n

As he shrinks away,<\/p>\n

Away down the curving coastline<\/p>\n

Until he is tiny and far.<\/p>\n

Hear his joy at echo bounce-backs.<\/p>\n

\u2028See his unencumbered freedom with flailing arms,<\/p>\n

Abandoned to boyish silliness.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, he was too far for me, his mom, to call him back.<\/p>\n

To say, Be careful, Not too far, Come back to mama.<\/p>\n

All he would hear is,<\/p>\n

Fun\u02bcs over.<\/p>\n

Time to move on.<\/p>\n

This was a long, long time ago. I\u02bcm thankful I remember it, because it exemplifies expansiveness to me. Abandonment. Being fully present, squeezing every ounce of joy and freedom the moment held.<\/p>\n

I long to join him in freedom, except my longing is for freedom to worship Jesus. I long for the physical freedom to dance before Him, belly laugh with Him, shout His praises. I long for the emotional abandonment to enter His Presence without pretense or hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

But there is great pressure to conform to human codes of conduct, to not bother anyone nearby, to not be \u201cout of order.\u201d Frankly, a room would have to be empty for me to dance before the Lord, or shout His praise\u2014and I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d even do it then. Sometimes, it seems the pressure is heavy, confining, oppressive. Wrong, somehow.<\/p>\n

The fear of man brings a snare. A snare is a trap that holds its prey tightly until it is released by someone.<\/p>\n

I think the Lord is that Someone. Let\u02bcs ask Him to release us from our snares and bondages, that we may fully engage in worshiping Him freely.<\/p>\n

Lord, we admit we are trapped by man\u02bcs ideas of what is proper. Yet, David danced (\u201ctwirled\u201d) before You in the streets. Release us to be abandoned to You completely. In Jesus\u02bc Name, Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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