You know what amazes me?

God.

Sounds like a pat answer from a Christian blogger, doesn’t it? But, really, I’m serious.

In the past two weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to celebrate the coming birth of two girls: a ministry by that very name, and a little granddaughter named Lilli.

At a North Carolina strategy meeting with a group of women’s ministry leaders, Mary and I shared the development of gIRL™, which has involved us hanging on to God for dear life as He’s gone about her formation.

At a beautiful baby shower I celebrated a slower-paced journey that has involved Him holding my hand as He’s deliberately, and sometimes very painfully, walked me through each step of forming our Lilli.

As I sit on the other side of these celebrations, I’m struck by the “dance” of it all. With gIRL™, it’s been a fast and furious, “crack the whip” sort of dance; a “conga line” if you will, with an ever-joyous Holy Spirit in the lead. He’s looked back at us, smiling and laughing, saying, “Hold on!! Just keeping following and holding on; it’s going to be a BLAST!” So we have, and IT HAS BEEN!

With Lilli, it started with no small amount of heartbreak; not about Lilli herself (she is a LIFE, a GIFT BEYOND MEASURE) but at the circumstances surrounding her conception. The revelation came as a shock, and the dance began with a tender and compassionate Holy Spirit slowly teaching me the steps to a delicate waltz with which I was not familiar. I stumbled a lot at first, stepping on His toes and tripping in frustration. It was a dance I hadn’t planned on learning in this way, and it showed. However, with great patience on His part, He stuck with me and I with Him. I have learned the steps and found that, as long as I kept my focus on my Partner, the dance became a thing of beauty…of joy.

I smiled this morning when I read this scripture:

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:25 NIV


You can take it on good authority when I tell you that if you “keep in step” with the Spirit, it will be a dance that will leave you filled with a joy you’ve never known…a dance that will leave you amazed.