UPDATE

Hi everyone.

First of all, yes, I am alive, despite the fact that I haven’t posted in months, and that I'm hardly ever online anymore...! Sorry! No, it's not because I don’t like anyone, or I'm mad. I love you all very much.... if I didn’t, I would tell you. You can count on that!

Having said this, and having made the necessary apologies for my absence, there is another issue at hand.(Yes, I know I'm talking all formally. If you have a problem with that, you can talk to your little computer screen.) I know my knee/dance updates have been getting rarer and rarer, so I figured I'd make a little blog put you all back in the loop. :)

My knee is doing a lot better... my Dr. said last week that in 8 weeks (7 now) I should be able to do anything at all and I'll have no problems...








IF I exercise 3 times a day! Uh, Doc, I think I can squeeze times 1 and 3, but where's 2 gonna go? :) But really, that is great! :) I'm so excited to be back 100% again! First time in almost 2 years!!! Crazy.

Now as for dance... even though it's true that by the time the 2010-2011 dance season rolls around, I'll be medically ok to dance, I've decided not to go back in. More simply, I am permenantly taking a break from dancing. Yes, you read me right folks. No more dancing for me. At least not extensively. Why? Well, this really should be another blog, but I'll do what I can to put it in a nutshell.

First of all, you have to consider that by the time I would start dancing again, I would have taken a 2 year break, and I haven’t been in the gym ½ as much as a usually was when I was dancing, which, all things considered, I should of been in the gym even more since I want dancing. And then there's the fact that I am 2 years behind where I should be. Facts are, I can spend all the time I want in the gym and on the dance floor, taking as many private dance lessons as I want, but I will never be able to get those 2 years back and get back with the same class. It might be worth it if I were going to make a career out of dance, but that has never been the point. So that’s one reason. But the main thing is that I feel like God was just saying:

"That season of your life is over now. It was good, and you learned a lot, but I have something else for you now, I want to show you some of the plans I have for your future."

Come to think of it, he was saying that a long time before all this happened with my knee, but I had made dance more important than Him, so I wasn’t paying attention to Him. Listen to me people, if God wants to get your attention, HE WILL GET IT, even if he has to let you get hurt. Now, don’t misunderstand, I'm not blaming God. The only person to blame for all this is me, and I know that. But here's the thing, is that God in His grace, used that time where I couldn’t dance to show me a lot. I suddenly had all this free time, and I found myself on my face, broken before Him, more and more. And that's when He began to show me that I had been idolizing dance. He began to show me the plans He has for me, and the calling He has on my life. And let me tell you, it was scary at first. But I decided to jump into it, and you know what? It still seems a little scary at times, but I'm ready for it.

The decision to not dance was the hardest, most back-and forth-, painful decision I ever made, but heck, was it worth it! Once I let go of that, doors started to fling open in every direction, it was a little overwhelming.

Ok, so it was a lot overwhelming.

This has quite possibly been the best year of my life, even though it's been without a doubt, the hardest. But its only because I let God do whatever He wanted. I remember being on my face one night, and I said, "God, I don’t know what to do anymore. I'm lost, I'm broken, and I'm on my face here before you, and I just don’t have a clue. So just do whatever you want with me. Take all of me until there's nothing left to take." And that’s when He said to me " Perfect. You don’t have any strength of you own, and now I can use you"

So here is my challenge to you, as a friend, not someone who's holier-than-thou: Have you allowed yourself to be broken before the Lord today? This week? This month? How about this year? If not, I challenge you to come before Him, and tell Him what's going on. Allow yourself to be broken before the One whose body was broken for you, and healed by our Perfect God. Listen for His voice, and let him change you. Let His love pour over you in your brokenness, and let him use you for His glory. Let me tell you, it is the most amazing thing when you realize you get to be a part of something that is so much bigger than yourself, and when you realize that God doesn’t need you at all, but that he deeply desires to use you anyway. All he needs on your part is a willing heart.

Much love,

angie