Teach Me to Dance
So how do we recover our original glory? (See yesterday’s post.) By seeking to glorify rather than to be glorified. In other words, our greatest glory is to give glory. We are most ourselves when we delight in others and give ourselves away.
Like God.
Last night I read a little further into Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. I was delighted that the last regular chapter of the book was devoted to the Trinity, the focus of our adult retreat this last weekend. Those who were at the retreat, and hopefully others as well, will appreciate this quote from his chapter entitled “The Dance of God:”
“What does the term “glorify” mean? To glorify something or someone is to praise, enjoy, and delight in them. When something is useful you are attracted to it for what it can bring you or do for you. But if it is beautiful, then you enjoy it simply for what it is. Just being in its presence is its own reward. To glorify someone is also to serve or defer to him or her. Instead of sacrificing their interests to make yourself happy, you sacrifice your interests to make them happy. Why? Your ultimate joy is to see them in joy.
“What does it mean, then, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit glorify one another? If we think of it graphically, we could say that self-centeredness is to be stationary, static. In self-centeredness we demand that others orbit around us. We will do things and give affection to others, as long as it helps us meet our personal goals and fulfills us.
“The inner life of the triune God, however, is utterly different. The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, we center on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance, particularly if there are three persons, each of whom moves around the other two. So it is, the Bible tells us. Each of the divine persons centers upon the others. None demands that the others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them. Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others. That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love. The early leaders of the Greek church had a word for this — perichoresis. Notice our word “choreography” within it. It means literally to “dance or flow around.”
Jesus, please teach me to dance.
