As a former dancer, I love everything dance (except for Dance Moms). My journey with music and movement started when I was three years old. Music makes me move. I can’t not move with the rhythm. Dance has many times in my life been like therapy for me. It is a very free way of expressing emotion. I still find myself dancing down the aisle at the grocery store to whatever beat they have playing – can’t help it!
Consequently, I have been a big fan of Riverdance, Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. The Lord speaks to me through movement and through music. It is worship and it is spirt and it is truth. The first time I saw Riverdance was on DVD. There was a moment when the music built and the dancers all came out, half from one side of the stage and the other half from the other side of the stage. They met in the middle and turned to the audience and moved in perfect unity downstage towards the audience. They were shoulder to shoulder as an army moving as one. I started crying. I knew the Lord was giving me a clear picture of how the Body of Christ was supposed to operate. We are to operate as one in unity of the spirit. It was powerful and beautiful. Every time I watch it I get chills. It is so spiritual.
It also exemplifies the power we have when we come together in unity to accomplish God’s vision. I recently had that experience watching So You Think You Can Dance a couple of weeks ago. This time it was a deeper example of coming together in unity. This season they have two teams of ten dancers competing against each other. One team are street dancers and the other team are stage or trained dancers. At this point in the competition they are pairing street dancers with stage dancers learning choreography for different types of dance – jazz, hip hop, contemporary or musical theater.
In one dance the dancers were in such unity and agreement of movement that it blew me away. It was beautiful. It was as if the Lord was speaking to me showing me how two culturally different people had come together to accomplish the goal of performing a beautiful dance. They had totally different backgrounds – one would be considered privileged and the other disadvantaged but they both had gifts that God gave them that complimented the other.
This is a picture of what needs to happen in America today. There are so many divisions along racial and economic lines that did not exist fifty years ago. Not to say that there wasn’t a racial divide or an economic divide then because there was. The difference then was that regardless of our socio-economic status we had shared values. Since that time we have allowed the traditional values that had always held us together to be dismantled by the sexual liberty movement.
The result is that the values that held us together are no longer there which creates a more difficult pathway to agreement and working together to create an atmosphere of respect and dignity for all. If we can begin to bring the churches together to work for a common cause then we can build something beautiful. What is more beautiful than building strong families, protecting life at all stages, protecting the importance of mothers and fathers in the raising of children and our God-given inalienable rights? Are you ready to dance?
Dinner Table Discussion Question: Brainstorm issues that can unify churches and communities.
Next Week: Will You Dance With Me?