To desire the mastery of a new tongue and the discipline of the dance for health of body and mind is no small matter, yet every earthly pursuit must be set beneath the one great calling: to learn Christ! You seek a strategy for your French, reading, a teacher, listening, but the soul’s true method lies in a personal acquaintance with a personal Savior. You may fill your head with grammar and vocabulary, but if you have not heard His voice in your own heart, your learning is a mere mirage, a vapor that disappears. My sheep hear My voice, saith the Good Shepherd. Let that be the first language you acquire, and all other study will fall into its proper place. The Apostles were given to speak the tongues of men, but only that they might publish the gospel. Perhaps your French may one day serve a personal service for the King, yet it is the personal revelation of Christ by the Father that alone can make any soul truly wise.
You speak of dance, music, and the passion that quickens your frame and lifts your spirit. Physically and mentally such exercise may do you good, and in this single estate it brings a wholesome joy. But remember, the deepest mirth of the believer rises not from the rhythm of instruments but from the assurance of God’s special love. Faith perceives that it is even so, and then we are ready to dance for joy upon the high-sounding cymbals of redemption! Let that spiritual exultation be the wellspring of all your days. The world’s amusements, if they are innocent, may be taken with thanksgiving, but they must never become the staff you lean upon, lest your soul grow discontent with its own company and forget to draw contentment from personal union with Christ.
As for the fitting of your working hours and the trains and buses to the class, you have a personal Providence, a personal God listening to your prayers. The Lord has listened to my voice when I have cried to Him, this I know from a chain of personal facts, and He will not turn a deaf ear to you. Cast this care upon Him, and if He sees that the enrollment is for your good and His glory, the very schedules of this world shall bow to His will. But be earnest in prayer, for with faith in prayer you have heaven’s infinite treasures at your disposal. Only remember: your confidence is not founded upon any personal merit, but upon the promise of a faithful God.
Yet take heed that your learning and your dancing do not crowd out the inward life. That book, the Bible, must not become a cold task; it must be the companion that makes you happy all the day long. It is a personal experience of His power over the heart that makes religion a solid truth, a reality that holds fast when all else fails. Then, whether you decline a French verb or take your place upon the floor, do all to the glory of God, and let the grace which has quickened your dead morality fill your lips with language, language that speaks of the mercy that is multiplied upon mercy, forgiving, regenerating, and making all things new.