Spinning

Some Sundays at my church, when the worship music is particularly lively, there is a little girl who will pry herself loose from her parents, and make her way down to the front of our worship space where she'll begin to dance. 

She'll twirl and jump in time to the music, reveling in worship in a way that most of us would daydream of doing, but would never dare.  

The unexpectedness of her dance always brings smiles of joy from everyone who experiences it.  She is a leaping, spinning, joyful reminder of what it means to be a Jesus-centered community of faith.  

I've learned that when a church is at it's best is when it is able to hold on to it's traditions and expectations loosely enough to experience a new song, and to engage in a new way of dancing to the rhythms of the Spirit of Christ.  

During this season of Advent, those of us who claim to follow Jesus need to expect the unexpected.  We need to be ready to sing a new song, and dance a new dance.  The world is watching, and in desperate need of hope and joy right about now. 

Walter Brueggeman once wrote: 

"It's no wonder, once the singing begins, that all creation sings and dances and claps with us."  

Be listening today for the new song God might be encouraging you to sing.  Be mindful of the new rhythms that the Spirit of Christ might be using to invite you to twirl and dance with wild abandon.  

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.