I love to sing and dance. Many of you have heard me sing. Few if any have seen me dance. I used to be pretty good. In fact, the largest trophy I have ever received was for second place in the Madison County 4H Fair talent show, where I performed an elegant tap dance routine with a girl named Nancy. We were nearly flawless, but were outshined by an older girl who tap danced on a special suspended floor while standing on her head! (No kidding!)
I started dancing when I was barely able to walk, I think. It was a long time ago and the pictures remind me of those special times. It started with me an one other guy and about 12 girls all practicing and performing together a single routine. As one year turned into the next, the group turned into one guy (me) and 5 girls. Eventually everyone else quit or shifted to another group and it was just Nancy and me learning the routines, practicing our movements together, rhythmical coordination of feet, taps, arms, and bodies, to the music. We learned to flow with each other.
I stopped tap dancing by the time I was 13. But never stopped dancing. by the time I reached High School I couldn't wait to get to the dances after ball games, taking and eventually teaching Disco (this is a hard thing to confess) lessons and singing and dancing in the Swing Choir and in the Musical productions at school. There's something about the beauty of moving together, knowing each others response and reaction. Dance can be beautiful when it's performed right.
The Church is performing a great dance. "God filled the earth with gifts. He handed out gifts...to train Christ's followers in skilled servant work, working withing Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son." (Ephesians 4:14-16a, The Message) The beauty of the Church's dance comes when every player does her part in anticipation of the next move. A great dance comes not just when one performs a move, but performing a move in preparation for the next. A truly great dance is give and take. It is serving your part to another and they in return until it flows together.
Even though it was my decision to quit dancing because I hated it so (at 13 it didn't seem like the most masculine thing I could be doing!), I look fondly back on those days. By the time I reached High School and saw Gregory Hines perform his version of modern tap, I wished I had continued. To this day I drive my wife nuts when I tap my foot or fingers to music. It's a part of me and I still get to dance...
...when I serve Christ and serve you.
Can I have this dance?
Peace ><>
PC
3 comments:
In continuation with the dance theme (and of course my love of TV! :-), I've been watching Dancing with the Stars. I am so impressed by ballroom dancing, and on this show I can see what a great amount of effort goes into the practice and preparation. The dancers make it obvious that they really get a workout - as well as blisters and sore backs!
I am excited about all our church does for Christ, but I am even more excited about what it has AHEAD for Christ's kingdom. I guess just like Dancing with the Stars, it is so, so enjoyable to see those graceful dances and how very, very smooth the dancers' movements are, but there is a lot of work behind that. I guess we can be aware of what is needed to produce a dance and to further a church that is progressively alive for God: preparation (study/practice), "coaches" and "choreographers", painful times, music, singers, lighting, the people who laid the wood flooring for the dance floor/church, overall planning (committees/visioning, producers/writers), detail work, and on and on and on.
I Heart Dancing!
Ahh yes dancing...I too was a tap dancer..from about the age of 3(I still have pictures of us little ones dancing to our own beat as little bumble bees) until I was about 15. I enjoyed it. Let me see....is it like riding a bike...ahh yes "shuffle ball change" yep, I still can do it after all these years.
Its the same with our dance with Christ and fellow christians. We may have stopped dancing along the way, deciding to watch others dance from the sidelines...being wallflowers. But, you see, its just like riding a bike...step away from the wall and start dancing again..it all comes back and its a joy! Serve others...connect to others and most of all dance with Christ. He is waiting with his hand out for us all to participate in service to Him and each other. So tap your feet, get in the groove....and dance! It will be the most important dance of your life! :-)
As an added note...Last year at Lay School I took the class entitled "May I Have This Dance?" It was such an awesome class. It was all about our dance with Christ. I have the book...I'll share it with anyone needing some dance lessons! Sandy
Post a Comment