We did a line dance at church on Sunday. Yes, a line dance for Jesus. That’s pretty ridiculous on a lot of levels, but I experienced something during that line dance that I’d like to share. It reminded me of my early 20s. I had decided to rediscover my faith for myself instead of simply believing what I had been told. One of the philosophers I read was laying out his arguments for the existence of God and one of his points was that he had experienced God. That seemed pretty arbitrary to me, and I rejected it as invalid because I was looking for hard evidence. What I’ve come to realize over the years since then is that God does reveal Himself to us sometimes, and that we need to be looking and ready for those times. Those experiences are a piece of the puzzle in our search for understanding and knowledge of the Divine. They’re threads of enlightenment that can be woven together little by little. My experience may not teach anyone else about God, but it teaches me something, even if it happens during a line dance.
I’m a decent dancer. I gave Lianne ballroom dancing lessons, for both of us, as a Valentine’s gift one year. (It went over really well, so consider that a tip guys.) The dance instructors were impressed with my skills, at least by my recollection. So, when we learned the simple line dance that Dina choreographed for us, I figured I wouldn’t have any problems. Most of the congregation participated, and the familiar sound of “Forever” by Chris Tomlin got us started. I had a hard time remembering all the steps, but about halfway through I had it down and I got a little cocky. I started freestyling a little. In my mind I looked like Usher, but in reality I looked like Carlton from The Fresh Prince.
Not content to just add some flair to the dance steps I started singing along, and then I started looking around at my friends and family as we all danced and sang together. I raised my right hand to pump my fist and we sang “Forever God is faithful. Forever God is strong. Forever God is with us.” I saw everyone else pumping their fists, and time slowed down a little. I felt a surge of joy, and I realized that I actually believed what I was singing. It was like all of the things that I am thankful for, and all of the good things and great people whom I love were all tossed together in my mind against this backdrop of dancing and music. God was truly there in the midst of us line dancing together! I think I hit some kind of buffer overflow or ran out of CPU threads or something because I could feel my control over the situation slipping as the freestyling, singing, looking around, and following the steps got to be too much for my mind and body to handle. I lost count of the fist pumps, then botched the next move, spun the wrong way, and finally got back into the groove. The moment was gone, but not lost. For a few seconds I had experienced something outside of myself. I was tapped into the infinite. It was joy and unity and clarity and love. I now have one more thread of understanding. That thread, along with the handful of others I’ve collected over the years, might not amount to much … but someday I’m gonna make a blanket. -bryan
Here’s a 5 minute clip of Brian McLaren, on the Iconocast Podcast, talking about some experiences he had with the Divine. Sometimes we don’t take the time or make the effort to see these things, but we should.
McLaren_Iconocast
If you have FB, here’s a link to some video of the line dance.