Do You Wanna Dance?

I'm not much of a dancer so it intrigued me when I found myself bouncing around with speakers in my ears just after one of my morning runs. You know, you've witnessed this have you not? You see some crazed individual with his or her ears stopped up with music and they are bobbing around in their own private world. They are listening in to a beat that stirs their souls and their bodies but you are not privy to the words or the music. They are "lost in wonder, love, and praise" as old Charles Wesley once wrote.

It's a sight to behold to see someone possessed with an unseen spirit. Reminds me of something straight out of the pages of the bible when the words say, "the demon caused him to flail around and dance about." Actually the word "demon" in the bible has a history. Demons in the real old days did not connote "bad." To be possessed by a demon could be good. A demon was simply a spirit beyond self that was powerful enough to possess you.

Well...back to my demon that overwhelmed me just after my run. At first I did not know why old shy-not liking to dance-me found myself jiving around near my driveway not seeming to care who might be watching and wondering. Was it the words, the beat, the music? After an initial pause to see if anyone might be driving by...or driving by and having stopped to look...I listened to the words. Ah...not only was it the beat of the bouncing spirit. I realized that I liked the words. They reminded me of another song...a hymn...but not one of those dreary, dirge-like hymns. This hymn makes you want to dance. In fact this hymn is dance:

I danced in the morning when the world was begun
And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
And I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth

Dance then wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the dance said he
And I'll lead you all wherever you may be
I'll lead you all in the dance said he...

So what was this other not so religious song that captured my early morning spirit? Alas it was the Avett Brothers singing, "Dancing Daze." At first it was the upbeat music that made me dance around, but then I realized that the words reminded me of that one who "danced one morning when the sky turned black," even though its hard to dance "with the devil on your back." And then the dancing Lord goes on to say, "They buried my body and they thought I'd gone, but I am the dance and I still go on..."...and then the words I love, "They cut me down and leapt up high, I am the dance that will never never die...I'll live in you if you live in me...I am the Lord of the dance said he."

Okay so I was possessed that morning but here are the words from that mystical demon who is way good before demons turn way bad... The words were probably written about a girl who looked at life in a wonderful way...written by a guy who admired her "possessed" style of dealing with whatever came her "way" by dancing her "way" through good and bad times....Here goes...put on your ear plugs and have at it...

"I've seen the way you look at things
The troubles that this life will bring
If it gets to you then I can tell by the way you sing
You act like it just doesn't mean a thing

I see you dancin all your, dancin all your, dancin all your daze
Maybe you can tell me how it is you got that way
Dancin all your dancin all your dancin all your daze
Come on, come on, there's got to be a way

There's all these things that get me down
The dirty world is full of clowns
They build you up just so they can knock you down
Laugh at you while you're there on the ground
....but you...I see you dancin all your days

...I really like the way it feels
I look at you and it's real...

come on...come on that's got to be the way"

As I finished my possessed dance I thought of all those dear people to whom I try to minister who are really struggling with the bad demons of cancer, or loss of jobs, or mates who disappear, or children who go to far countries. I often wonder how some people get by...and then...I hear the words...."there's all these things that get me down"..."it's hard to dance with the devil on your back"....but then come those other words..."I've seen the way you deal with things...I see you dancing all your daze...come on, come on, show me the WAY"

He once said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life"....ah now I see.....one of those ways is to dance no matter what because there is one who is the Lord of the dance who even danced one Friday when the sky turned black....and who in spite of it all said, "I am the dance that will never never die...I'll live in you if you live in me...I am the Lord of the dance said he"

The way, the truth and the life.....dancing, all your, dancing all your, dancing all your days...come on come on that's got to be the way...

Bless you,
jody
jseymour@davidsonumc.org