One of my biggest wishes in high school (read “my whole life” here, but I gotta keep my street cred) was that life could be a musical. Even just sometimes. Music so readily connects to one’s soul, and I’m full of emotion, so I’d like to be able to just sing my emotions to the world if need be. For instance, if I had to sing right now, as I’m writing, I’d sing a sweet, slow song about the rain, missing my friends who aren’t here, and how coffee is the remedy. I don’t know what the problem is, but coffee could fix it. I’m just pretty sure.

Okay, so know that about me, know that I arrived to a place that I’m quite comfortable, a very home-y place for me (the vagueness is to protect those in this story who wished to remain unnamed.)  Music was playing, and we were sitting on some couches. Then, one of the more lively of my friends says, “Dance party? GREAT.” And then she ran to pump up the volume. She begins to dance and flail and just have a dandy time. It was contagious. The two of us on the couch of course joined her. We bounced, we gecko’d (don’t ask), we shimmied, we salsa’d, we pranced. (Now you know why they want to remain nameless.) We laughed; I couldn’t help but smile. Song after song played while the room danced gleefully along. Another person arrived, and she pretended to not see us. She wouldn’t make eye contact, and walked along the walls.  There was another girl we know not too far away from us in another room.  We wanted so much for them to join in our joy. That desire manifested itself in different ways: the stealthy one we attacked and had a dance party around her, much to her chagrin. Then our dance party became a travelling show as we went to visit our friend a little ways away. She looked at us incredulously while we showed her our best routine. Forty-five minutes, sweaty t-shirts, and a great memory later, we decided to call it quits.

Those of you who know me best know that I would never let a moment like this sit in my head without analyzing it. I analyze most everything –sometimes for grammar, all the time for humor, and occasionally for life lessons. Jesus was using this lovely little moment to teach me something. Why did this moment feel like it was too sweet to be real life? It felt like a spontaneous dance party was out of a movie. And, I realized that, because I was free to be myself: no inhibition, no worries, no judgment. I was completely unabashed. The dance party was worship, an expression of the freedom and gratitude. And I wanted to share that joy with the other passersby.  I went to where they were. I showed them, and no matter the reaction, it was my chance to join them in the movement. And, as weird as a jump as this may be, Jesus was changing my perspective on evangelism a bit. I saw how important and how much I simply wanted to share what I had.

Hopefully the rhythm is going to get you too,
holli