Lisa Jordan CS -The Practice of Christian Healing

 Since I teach ballet class almost every day of the week, I am always learning spiritual lessons as I teach others.  I have my own studio where I specialize in private coaching, but often I do some teaching to large classes of all different levels for other studios as well.

Something that I run into alot is that I may have students that are older and want to be in with students their own age, but they haven't had the training to enable them to do that. And so often parents will complain and students will be upset when they are asked to take a lower level class with younger students. They somehow think that either they are not well liked by the teacher or that an injustice is being done.

Here's what I have noticed. In the situation where the student and parent complain and insist that the student take a more advanced class with kids their own age, when they really need to be working at a lower level to learn their fundamental skills,  the student really never progresses. They do not usually progress because they are just trying to imitate the others and have no working knowledge of the basis skills and technique that they need. And then being forced to work at such a fast pace without a  much needed foundation, they just work incorrectly.

On the other hand, there are several students that I work with that have not had any resistence to learning their fundamentals in a lower level class with much younger students. In fact they have found joy and relief for being given the opportunity to finally understand how the technique works and this is why they have joy. And they progress very quickly and move into a more advance class quite rapidly.

In watching this happen with some students the other day, I realized that these types of students that willingly went into the classes that were suggested  for them were really expressing humility . They were expressing the humility to learn what they needed to learn, gratitude for the opportunity, joy for the freedom to do it and unlimited progress. Instead of thinking that they needed to complain and be resentful because it seemed something was unfair or that they were being held back, they used their present situation to grow and blossom.

Sometimes, it is so easy to feel trapped or unhappy by circumstances of all different kinds.  We can be so focused on the situation that we feel stuck. But when we can see it as an opportunity and see present good right where we are, and be grateful for it , we see our desire come to pass much more quickly and enjoy the process as well.

In Hebrews 11 verse 1, in the King's James translation of the Bible, we read,

" Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." 

The Amplified translation reads, "Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses)." That's the key-"what is not revealed to the senses."  That doesn't mean that the good we hope for is not present but that our senses haven't perceived it yet. True faith actually goes beyond hope. It is believing God's Word or Truth. It is being in agreement with God and not being in agreement with the testimony of the senses.

I saw this demonstrated many years ago when I was on an audition tour trying to get my first job in a professional ballet company. I had auditioned everywhere I could and still no job. Finally, hiring season was over and contracts were signed as they traditionally are in spring and early summer. I was sort of depressed, but then I started thinking about this idea of true faith. So I decided that if I was going to accept that I already had right employment, then I needed to wholeheartedly consent to that truth and start acting like it. So I started thanking God for my job so much that I got happy about it and finally I believed it. About 2 months later I got a phone call. It was from a  professional ballet company that I had auditioned for and to whom I had also given a video of my dancing and resume. The company manager said that for months they had wanted to hire me but had lost my information. And then she said that it was the strangest thing but that when she came to work that morning, my video and resume were sitting on her desk. And she wanted to know if I would be interested in coming right away so that I could dance the lead role in their production of "The Nutcracker." 

You see it was true all along that I had all the good that I needed. And as soon as I started to agree with that  fact in spite of what I saw, my experience lined up with God's Word so that even the senses perceived it. But I had to believe it was present and true first because it was. I often like to remind myself of this when I am tempted to believe something other than God's goodness in my life.

Have you ever felt like every little thing is just so irritating? It could be the traffic lights that are always red when you are in a hurry, or how after you have been standing in line forever a new cashier opens another register and says " I'll take whoever is next" and the very last person in line runs over to her or it could be that someone close to you is viciously unkind or unfair.

In all honesty, we may have legitimate reason and rights to feel irritation, disgust or just plain hurt , but the problem is that now we are the ones hurting-not other people. It's sort of like intending to throw a hot coal at someone else but as it sticks to your hand, you are the one who gets burned. This is probably why Jesus told us in his Sermon on the Mount to love our enemies.

When we start to realize that it is never our circumstances or other people that have control to harm us, but it is how we choose to interpret and react to a situation that determines our happiness and well being, then we can start to be free. Love is indeed the only power in the universe because God is Love itself.