If you’ve been following along with our 20th anniversary devotions this year, you’re likely to have noticed a theme. In September, we prepared for the milestone year with Psalm 85:12-13. In October, we cultivated studio culture through Ezekiel 36:34. November saw a study of sowing in Psalm 126:5-6, and we nourished hearts in December through Deuteronomy 32:13. In January we focused on waiting in Psalm 27:14, all the while telling the story of God’s planting and raising up the Turning Pointe Dance we’re part of today.
But February’s devotional focus takes us in a new direction—one that requires us to let go. One that requires us to surrender. One that requires trust. This month, we relinquish control and allow God to help us grow.
“So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” — 1 Corinthians 3:7
Plant analogies aside, each month’s devotion thus far has been a natural fit for us traditional, “Type A” dancers. Afterall, we can prepare the ground and adjust it ourselves as needed. We can control the soil and, in choosing their location, control how much sunlight our plants receive. We can do our own seed planting and handle all the watering ourselves. Even in the quieter phases of gardening, as a studio, we discussed how we work in the wait, taking personal responsibility for our end of God’s work in us. But February is not like the others. We can do everything right, and try to control every detail. But like this month’s verse says: Only God gives the growth. And back when Ms. Tina Cook’s dance classes outgrew their space in local churches, it was time for Turning Pointe to trust God, too.
“In early 2011, we had some new signs of life, and our planted dream was sprouting and growing bigger everyday,” Cook said. “We finally found a place that was 3000 square feet (I was thinking 2000 originally) at Briargate Boulevard and Union. I remember it being a battle to come to terms on the cost of the buildout and rent. … But the next year in 2012, we opened the Training Center, which was an empty space on the end of our building to make another studio so we could offer more classes. We were already bursting at the seams. It wasn’t ideal as students had to walk outside to go back and forth between classes (and wave at the dog groomer that was our neighbor), but it worked.”
Taking a leap of faith into a new facility took a lot of trust in God, and a lot of surrendering our plans to His. But letting go of the old made way for God’s growth, both in location and classes to the development of the Training Division, and the birth of STARZ Theater and Fidele Youth Dance Company shortly thereafter.
“During these years there was a lot of amazing growth happening in so many areas, like teachers, students, programs and families,” Cook said. “But there were also growing pains like parking, the volume of communication I was trying to keep up with, dealing with the public and trying to keep everyone happy, and just the sheer amount of work that comes from scaling a business that is growing so quickly and keeping that balanced with my own family. It was a lot.”
In the context of this month’s verse in 1 Corinthians, we hear Paul speaking to the division of the church, with some groups clinging to Paul himself while others held tightly to Apollos. But the aforementioned verse reminds us that God is the one who unites us. In doing so, Paul provides a great picture of the way the kingdom of God works, and how the gospel of God spreads through different people planting and different people watering. While we’ve already spoken to the many hands that have poured into the growth of our studio, it’s ultimately the Lord who provides, and who is the source of all that is good. As we look forward to the next 20 years of dancing for Him, we praise God for the ways He has used people to plant and water, and we pray that He would use us to plant and water in others’ lives, all so that we might let go and let Him receive exclusive glory in our growth. Not our way in our time, but His alone.
“What I learned during this season is that just like in gardening, healthy things grow. Growing things change, and changing things change things,” Cook said. “In a growing season of our lives, we are often stretched beyond our comfort zone and our capacity is expanded so we can be prepared for what God’s plans are. My original dream was already way too small. This time of growth, change, and expansion was a season of shaping me and this dream to be a reflection of Him.”