Following the Lead

One winter my wife and I took dance lessons.  For several weeks we went to the instructor and learned the steps.  Mostly we learned the foxtrot, waltz and tango.  The tango was fun but very complicated and over the years we have pretty much forgotten it.  But the fundamentals of the foxtrot and waltz have stuck with us and can be used to dance to most songs.  When we first were starting, the instructor explained that the couple works as a team.  The man leads and the woman allows herself to be led.  He went on to say the for most women, being led takes some getting used to.

Most of us would rather lead than be led.  We want to set the conditions and decide what is going to happen next.  Some people don't really want to lead or decide, but what they do want is the right of refusal.  They don't want to lead, more back seat drive and offer helpful suggestions.  This is the person who doesn't want to choose where to go for dinner, but is not very happy about your choice of getting pizza.

When we resist being led, there is a real lack of trust in the leader.  A woman is nervous being led around the dance floor, because she is afraid that her partner will run her into something.  

But for a Christian, being led by God should be different.  On the one level we know that God's will for our life is way better than anything that we could come up with on out own, but still we are afraid that God is going to pick out pizza when we want home cooking.  But that's it.  We need to trust that God's will is better than our own.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

The Lord's prayer is our model.  It is given to us by Jesus as a way to show us the way to pray to God the Father.  May we really believe that God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.