Blackpool Tower Ballroom |
During these months away on Sabbatical and holiday I have
been so privileged to spend time with many different people in many different
places.
One of those places that I recently visited was Blackpool
Tower where we spent time in the Ballroom.
There we sat and listened to music, watched people dance, and had High
Tea! The Ballroom has featured on “Strictly
Come Dancing” on television, but even without that attention I am sure it would
draw many people to just sit and soak up the atmosphere.
At Blackpool Tower Ballroom there are “regulars” who go
there to dance each day and in their small, but appreciated way, entertain the
visitors with their dancing. I love watching
the dancing as they move gracefully and (depending on the music) with excited
passion. If the truth be known I enjoy
watching that more that the hyped up “Strictly” on television, and, just to
show how sad I can be years ago I enjoyed watching “Come Dancing” which was
much more about ordinary people dancing rather than so called celebrities, most
of whom are known to a minority of people.
With that wonderful dancing it is so important to keep in
with the rhythm and beat of the music and the organist. How like that it is with God. We can choose to dance our own way, but if we
opt into keeping to the rhythm and beat of the Holy Spirit, if we keep in step
with the Spirit, then the patterns and flow of our lives become things of
beauty.
Is anyone pulling your strings? Will you dance to God's beat? |
I was reminded again just the other day of the importance of
music and rhythm and beat when I saw a street entertainer (see
photograph). Beautiful violin music was
being played from a CD player and a puppeteer was controlling a puppet
violinist who played along in time with the music. In some ways that makes the same point as
above – that keeping in with God’s (the puppeteer’s) rhythm so that everything
was in time with the music meant it looked beautiful. Actually though there is an important
difference. God does not pull our
strings. He does not control us in that
way. Oh yes there are plenty of people
who do try to pull our strings and it might be worth us all reflecting on who
or what might pull our strings in life and seek to control us.
The important difference with God is that there are no
strings attached. Instead he invites us
graciously to join in his dance, his music, his rhythm, his beat.
Will you dance to a different beat? Will you dance to God’s beat?
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