I spent 5 hours today at a dance competition in Burley, ID. I had 4 girls from my youth group who were participating in a few dances, and I wanted to watch them. They got way behind schedule because of a 2hr power outage, so I was there much longer than I had expected. But it proved to be some good contact time, just hanging out with them before their performance.
I got to take a few photos of the group of girls from Wendell, though from where I was sitting, they definitely came out pretty blurry [which is kind of a fun effect]. Oh well. Interesting. I was trying to visualize myself as a father watching his 13yr old daughter do some of the dance moves I saw this evening…hmm. There were a wide variety of dances though (tap, jazz, military, lyrical, ballet). Jazz was definitely my favorite though, and the girls from our youth group did a fabulous job!
I found myself slightly amused at the few dancers from other groups I saw who had absolutely no idea what was going on. They were improvising the whole time, trying to follow others who were in the front lines. They were always a few steps behind – I couldn’t help but laugh at them a little [maybe not a full-out laugh; more of a chuckle]. They were lost. Strugglers.
And then I felt like an ass. Well, at least realized that I too am a struggler. I too am so often a few steps behind – struggling to find the beat, to get the moves down. We all are. We are dancers, trying to figure out the steps of life, the hand motions, the moves necessary to follow God – and we’re not doing the best job at it. But somehow — with the help of watching those who have the moves down a little better than us (or have been practicing more, or…hmm, maybe the Holy Spirit?) we’re able to get through…to make it to the end…
[Does this mean I’m ready for seminary, if I’m getting sermon illustrations from high school girl’s dance competitions…?]