Swing Dancing For God!

To those who read my blog,

Today was AWESOME SAUCE! I got to see God moving in ways that were just spectacular. After a weekend where things seemed to go wrong in so many places, we at Ambrose University College received such a blessed evening.

I should go into a bit of a background for those who don’t know.

Every year, my school does something called Legacy Youth Conference. It is a time when youth from all over the country come and we as students have a chance to minister to these students in awesome ways! There are a bunch of student teams and they are all led by student leaders. I was on the prayer team for the second year in a row.

Well, I was not really able to get into the worship at all because I had grudges that I had to deal with. Also, there was a damper on the whole weekend with something specific that I know nothing about, but it was there and it was causing some frustration.

So finally, I had to own up to my own sin and tell the people I was holding stuff against that I was holding stuff against them and that I forgave them and also ask for their forgiveness. It went rather well. I don’t know if the bigger problem ever got fixed or dealt with because I was not really aware of it at all. I have no idea what it was about, but I am assuming it was because worship that night was AMAZING!

Yeah, so God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good! The stuff that led up to worship was great. The prayer room where we all go our Bibles out and praised God through His word, when I got the chance to pray for one of the youth from Edmonton, and then the praying whilst leaning against the gym wall. To say the least, it was an amazing night and it could only end in one way: the worship experience.

Here’s where the swing dancing comes in. So I “learned” a new swing style called Balboa. I put “learned” in quotes because I sucked at that dance. I only got the basic down (and even that was poorly executed). For some reason though, I remembered at least that. Tonight, after getting off my knees and throwing my shoes to the ground because I felt the Spirit tell me it was holy ground, I danced almost until my feet bled. This balboa basic move was done to the fast music of the worship band and I could not stop dancing! My feet, as we speak, are in shreds and I do not know how I am to run on the treadmill tomorrow! Here this description of balboa:

“Imagine a dance floor so crowded that it is illegal to separate from your partner! This dance originated in Southern California in the 1930s when swing music was at its peak.” (taken from http://www.toetappinswing.com)

The first thing to point out here is that balboa was happening at the peak of swing music. This is when everyone got together for dancing and there was not a lot of room for dancing. Everyone had to be careful of the other dancers. In essence, people had to act in unity with one another in order for the proper result to come. As Christians, we have to act in unity with one another if we hope to be the blessing God wants us to be. That does not mean that we have to join one denomination and all go to the same Church (or type of Church) but it does mean we have to be loving to all our brothers and sisters no matter what denomination they come from. I saw that unity tonight. It was beautiful seeing people come together for worship. Unity is an awesome thing!

The second thing to notice is that Balboa is a very intimate dance. The dancers are close together. In fact, when it was being taught to me, I was told that I actually have to hug the person I am dancing with. Tonight, I felt like I was that close to God. I felt like I was dancing with the Spirit. My main prayer for the people around me was that their spirit would be dancing with God’s Spirit… and I think that dancing did take place!

I know I butchered balboa tonight and it was probably only a bit similar to the actual dance but I am glad that my swing lessons could be beneficial to my worship experience. I hope that I can bring glory to God through dancing as I enjoy it and the people there a lot!

Please have a blessed week, oh readers of the blog, and I hope to update you again soon!

- Joshua