Dance
Do you know the song and the dance the electric slide? I am sure you do, but do you dance it? This is a dance that’s been around for a long time. It is danced at wedding receptions, parties, and other fun events. Even though it has been around a long time each time the song is played and the experienced line dancers get up to dance, there are always new people who are curious about the dance and want to learn it. But it can’t be learned by just watching you must get up there on the dance floor and stumble your way through it a few times before you really learn the dance steps.
Over Labor Day weekend my wife and I attended the Hendersonville NC Apple Festival with another couple. This is your traditional small town American downtown festival. There were kiddy rides, delicious (but of course bad for you) festival food. And in the heart of town in front of the court house there was a stage, a band, and a dance area. After a few hours walking through the festival and time spent listening to the band it was finally time to walk back to our cars and call it an evening. We were several blocks from the band stand walking down the sidewalk when the band began to play the song “The Electric Slide”. Our friend asked if we knew how to dance to this song. My wife and I love to line dance, so right there, on the main street sidewalk, away from where the band and dance area were we began to dance the Electric Slide. It started with just my wife and I and our friend but before long many others came over and ask if we could teach them also. Soon we had an entire line of “electric sliders”. People just got up the courage to learn a dance in the most unusual place, the main street sidewalk. A great time was had by all. They all thanked us for teaching them the dance. Why do I tell you this?
As I said above this is a dance that has been around for awhile, yet there are people who have heard the music and seen the dance but they have not learned to dance it. Our Christian faith can be the same way. We can know God’s word, and we can pray often but eventually we must put our faith in action. To share our faith, we must live it. Said differently we must dance. When we put our faith in action, when we truly live it others are attracted to it just like the newbies were attracted to learn the dance. Are you dancing your faith?
This past Sunday in James 1:22, James said it this way. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.”
Here are the words of another popular song. Imagine Jesus singing this song to us.
Lord of the Dance
Words by Sydney Carter (b.1915)
I danced in the morning when the world was begun,And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth;At Bethlehem I had my birth.
Refrain:Dance, then, wherever you may be;I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he.
I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee,But they would not dance and they would not follow me.I danced for the fishermen, for James and John They came with me and the dance went on.RefrainI danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame;The holy people said it was a shame.They whipped and they stripped and they hung me on high;They left me there on a cross to die.RefrainI danced on a Friday when the sky turned blackIt’s hard to dance with the devil on your back.They buried my body and they thought I’d gone;But I’m the dance and I still go on.RefrainThey cut me down and I leapt up high;I am the life that will never, never die;I’ll live in you if you’ll live in meI am the Lord of the Dance said he.Refrain
So then, in order to share our faith we must truly live our faith each day. When we let the light of our love for Christ shine forth from us, others will naturally want to know where we find the source of our joy. They will want to know what puts the dance in our step. Then we can tell them about Jesus our savior after they have witnessed Him in us.
In yet another popular song, Lee Ann Womack sings these words:
I Hope You Dance
I hope you never lose your sense of wonderYou get your fill to eat but always keep that hungerMay you never take one single breath for grantedGod forbid love ever leave you empty handedI hope you still feel small when you stand beside the oceanWhenever one door closes I hope one more opensPromise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chanceAnd when you get the choice to sit it out or danceI hope you dance I hope you dance
So today when you get the chance to live your faith and to share your faith in other words when you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you will dance!
Please take an extra moment to click hereand watch this video.BE SURE TO WATCH ALL OF THIS TO THE END AND NOTICE HOW THE CROWD MUST GET ON THEIR FEET AND DANCE. SO TOO CAN IT BE WITH OUR FAITH!
Lord you truly are the Lord of the Dance in my life. Please give me the same enthusiasm towards my faith in you that Michael Flatley shows when he dances this finale to the Lord of the Dance. If I have this enthusiasm towards you Lord I can’t help but to get others to follow your dance.
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