Isaiah::6-11

A number of years ago I went and participated in a Jazzercise class. 

Are you unfamiliar with this blend of jazz and exercise? It's dance exercise where a person from the front shouts our encouragement while modeling and describing the moves you need to perform as well. 

Making exercise more enticing for me by pairing it with dance is like trying to make dental work more appealing by pairing it with doing your taxes. No and thank you. 

I remember walking into the space with the expectation of humiliation. It wasn't a matter of wondering if I would be embarrassed by much more when. 

Instead what I experienced was incredible grace and a lot of fun. I was welcomed and encouraged not to worry about keeping up or getting it all right. The woman leading the class called out my name a number of times with affirmations that I was doing great. By the end of the class I felt included and safe in that space. 

Now, this is a bit of a spoiler, but there isn't even a single bit of jazzercise in the book of Isaiah. But what it does include is the description of being in a space where you're certain you don't belong. It's something that many of us have experienced and some of us experience with alarming frequency. 

What's so amazing about the story that we look at in this message is that this space is the presence of God and the word delivered is that you do actually belong.