God is love. Love one another. For God so loved the world. It’s no secret that love is a defining attribute of our Heavenly Father. In fact, the word “love” is written in the Bible more than 700 times in most translations, in part because there’s no other word for “love” in the English language. All season long we’ve been studying ways to magnify the Lord—that is, to make Him easier to see in our lives and through our dancing. This month the red Valentine hearts adorning each of our classroom doors remind us of our studio-wide devotional theme: Magnify Him through LOVE.
The Bible tells us we are made in the image of God, and, as Christian performers, we reflect His creativity in every step we dance. But more than that, we are made in the image of God, and that God is love. (1 John 4:8) The problem is, when we think about loving others, we often misplace our efforts by serving our own hearts in the process, or we simply pick and choose when we love others and when we don’t. Loving others isn’t always our top priority when we’re in the pits of recital preparation, doing vocal warmups or pliés at the barre. It’s especially difficult to shift our hearts to loving others when we’re so focused on achieving our own goals in the studio. Let’s face it—theater and dance can be a selfish industry by its very nature. Afterall, it’s hard to turn the spotlight to an unseen God when it’s literally shining on us, across the stage, for a whole audience to see. But God’s love doesn’t pick and choose. It doesn’t come and go, and this month’s memory verse–prominently displayed on every classroom mirror all February–can help us bring it all back into focus:
“No one has ever seen God; If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:12
I love this analogy from one of Ken MacLeod’s Community of Grace sermons:
“Who is someone that you love deeply? Why do you love them? If you have a list of all the reasons you love someone, you don’t really love them. You love yourself, and these reasons only tell you the ways that person pleases you. For example, G.K. Chesterton said you could pick a place, let’s say Portland, Maine. If you love Portland for some reason in particular, maybe because it has great food, then you don’t love Portland. You love yourself, and the food you can find around Portland pleases you. But if you really love Portland for no reason but for its own sake, you would be willing to tear down every restaurant in Portland if it made it a better place.”
As Christians we know that God is present in our world. But as John reminds us in this month’s verse, He is unseen. Enter this year’s theme: Magnify. Then enter this month’s verse. John is telling us that when we love one another with God’s love, it is a visible demonstration of His presence abiding in us. The trick is to magnify Him through a love like His, and not one of our own definitions. His is a love for others that can’t be explained. It’s a love for the unlovable; a love that loves those who are successful and those in the trenches with equal measure. It’s an intentional love for people God placed in your life. It’s a love for people who will not love you in return. It’s a love for your enemies. This is the love of God in you. In this way (and only in this way), we can give our audience visible evidence of the unseen God.
At Turning Pointe Dance, we’re working to be living examples of His perfect love, cultivating hearts of worship and a loving community that transcends the studio. It’s more than just great dancing—that’s the Turning Pointe difference. This month (and every one after that), we encourage you to reset each time you see the studio verse posted up on the mirror, or the Valentine hearts on each door. Reflect on your relationships. Pray for God’s love to work through you, whether that looks like lifting up your classmates, intentionally showing kindness to those not in your class or level, showing selfless gratitude for your setbacks, or even making God seen through a love of dance, performance and worship. In all things, we encourage you to magnify Him through love.