Leading by Following

While editing a friend's grad school essay, I came upon what I thought was a profound statement:

"On the hardwood moving to music, the feel of a natural connection is distinct, immediate, and unforgettable. It is a palpable attraction, but not of love, lust, or social rapport. It is a natural ease in communication between a follow and lead’s (in social dance men are generally called leads and women follows) bodies to music.

Dancing salsa for nearly nine years, my lead style is highly personal and rhythmically unusual. Follows with whom I share a natural connection are a scant few. The rest of a given nights’ dances require patience, sensitivity to a follow’s specific pattern and rhythm of movement, adjustment to hand and body pressure, and an alteration of my own preferred style. Great leads follow nearly as much as great follows lead. The goal is communication, never coercion."

Immediately, it brought me back to another profound statement I heard in this amazing message: "Grace (Jesus) leads by following." In the great picture of a shepherd leading his flock, what you cannot always tell, is that the shepherd leads the sheep by following them... Walking behind them, not in front of them, so that he can see when they go astray, get into trouble and get hurt. He's behind them so he can follow them into all the pits and ditches that they manage to get themselves into, follow them down the wrong turns, paths, and roads so he can rescue them and direct them where he wants them to go with his voice, staff and rod. All from behind...

God's grace is amazing... And Jesus being the personification of that grace is not just some "light at the end of the tunnel" that we're supposed to follow. He follows us... His love follows us when we get diverted, distracted, tired, stubborn, disobedient and hurt... He follows us when we can't follow Him... When we make the wrong choice, go down the wrong road, and end up in the wrong ditch. He follows us, sees us, protects us, rescues us, and leads us by directing us back onto the "right" path with His voice and His hands. That's grace... It's not about judgement or force... It's about understanding and adjustment. God's Word doesn't adjust, but His methods in dealing with us do... It's not about lowering the bar... It's about working with us until we can reach it, about lifting us up until we reach it...It's about saying, "I know you're not there yet, but it's ok, 'cuz I'm not leaving you until you are. I'm gonna stick with you and help you until you are."

As I look at my life, I see many moments in my walk/dance with God when I was being a less than perfect "follow". What I value and appreciate so much now, is that He didn't just keep "leading" when He knew I wasn't able to follow... He stuck close to me and followed me...

Which is another reason why I can't wait to dance salsa with Jesus in heaven :P Because He IS the PERFECT lead :D!