How is Your Dance?

I have been thinking of our Christian walk using the analogy of dancing.

We each have two dances we do with our Christian lives so to speak: a line dance (that we do with other people) and a flamenco dance (that we do by ourselves.)

You could think of it this way…

Our Line Dance is the dance we do with other people…in our church or in our small group working together to significantly impact our community…like working together in the Thanksgiving outreach or Back to School or Single Mom’s ministry, etc. It’s a line dance we do together in community. You can’t line dance alone.

But, we all also have our Flamenco dance…which is an individual dance…our individual rhythm, our personal mission—this is what we do with our one and only life. Nobody else can dance our Flamenco for us.

I am always looking for good things to expose my children to and last year I saw there was a free Flamenco dance presentation going on at GCC so I took my kids. It was really pretty fascinating. The person explaining it told us pure flamenco is a SOLO dance. And it is also a dance where the musicians follow the dancer’s lead. The dancer chooses how to dance. She told us that flamenco is improvised rather than choreographed. In other words, someone else is not going to figure out your dance for you. And let me say this…those Flamenco dancers we saw, were dancing their hearts out.

This reminds me of our own “dances” where as we dance the way God made us, the Holy Spirit is able to breathe the music of life into us. (Beautifully and the way He uniquely created each of us)

We all need to dance both dances and not only one of the two. We can’t only line dance and not be concerned with our individual walk. (Do the people at work even know I am a Christian?) And, we cannot only flamenco and be an island unto ourselves…then we have not impact on other people. It takes both dances!

Interestingly enough, young people are not considered to have the emotional maturity to convey the “duende” (soul) of the genre. Unlike other dance forms which favor the young, many flamenco dancers do not hit their peak until in their thirties and will continue to perform into their fifties and beyond.

How is your dance going? (Your line dance and your flamenco dance)

Blessings,

Thora

Author: Thora Anderson

Pastor, wife, daughter, sister, friend, Recovering worrier, Thinker, Mother of two teenagers. I've been in ministry for over 30 years and count that as huge success. View all posts by Thora Anderson

4 thoughts on “How is Your Dance?”

Amen, and so appreciate the analogy. When we carry the light – that is to say solo dance – I believe we are carrying forward the light and love of Christ. I love solo dancing! I love spreading the light and the love. It can be very tiring at times if my cup is not filled. That is where line dancing or community comes in. You see, when I live in community and line dance, there is something so energizing and lifting. As you said we need both. I love being that missionary into my workplace that does the solo dance, but I so rely on my community to get filled once again. To be clear, it is indeed Jesus who is filling me, and I believe He frequently does fill me, in community. I hope that makes sense.