Time to Dance

This past weekend, I got to enjoy dancing with my daughter at her tap recital.  To be honest, that was the first time in nearly 18 years since I had performed in front of an audience.  I had some butterflies in my stomach.  Would I trip and knock everyone over?  Would I mess up in front of everyone and have to stand there just awkwardly looking into the stage lights?  Would I embarrass my daughter?  Of all the woulds and coulds ‘this happen,’ I knew one thing to be true: I had to try!  And it was a lot of fun!

I really like the idea of dancing as a metaphor for God calling us into ministry.  Because when I look at my kids, and almost any kid when they’re young, they love to dance.  Like our baptismal identity it’s ingrained in us!  Does it mean that it’s the most graceful performance of Swan Lake or The Nutcracker?  No.  And is it full of joy and heart?  Absolutely.  As I said this past weekend, the Ascension is God’s call to us saying, ‘Your turn.’

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We are called to be Christ’s witnesses (Greek word is martyrion, where we get the word martyr) to our worlds in which we live.  To the Jerusalems we live in, that is our comfort zone, witness to God’s work in the world.  To all the Judeas were involved in, that is our places of work, friends, family, and neighbors; we are called to share/witness to them of God’s goodness to all.  To our Samarias, that is to those we dislike or places we never thought we’d want to be; witness to them.  And to the ends of the earth, that is those places we’ve never even imagined that will hear of God because of what we witness; God will have us witness there too!

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Back to the dance.  Some moves/routines/phrases are familiar.  For example, my first little bit was just some line dancing in the finale.  Think of the things we know how to do and could almost do in sleep.  And some moves/routines/phrases/ways of witnessing take some time.  The second song snippet I danced to was The Funky Cowboy.  It was tricky, not just a line dance number.  But it just needed time.

It’s our turn, your turn to dance now!  This coming weekend we’ll celebrate Pentecost; which we typically call the ‘birth of the church.’  Yet it’s not just that.  It’s also the stepping out of their comfort zones and starting to dance in the ministry God set for the church to grow into.  So, start considering how you can step up to the dance floor and dance in God’s routine.  I know you have it deep down inside of you!