Like dandelion spores float in the summer breeze, she danced with an easy, effortless grace.
As the music swelled and the people sang, her hair flowed in cascades around her weaving form, the smile on her face like sparkles of sunlight reflected in a stream… joy, unbridled, open, free.
The auditorium was filled to capacity with worshippers, all having come seeking an experience with God, and as the band played and the amphitheater resounded with singing, the dancer was all alone, eyes closed, head back, oblivious to all around her… and she was all but invisible to the crowd. She was not on stage, but rather off in a corner beside it, seemingly oblivious to all but the music and the Spirit of her Lord.
She was a dancer in the dark.
Some will dance for art, some for attention, some for money or fame, but she danced for one reason only – worship. Some will “do their acts of righteousness before men”, or play the role on a stage for as long as people watch, but she danced for an audience of One. For her, the dance was not to be seen, only lived out as an overflow of joy to the One who gave it to her in the first place, and it didn’t matter who saw or didn’t see, for she had only one Person to please.
Have you been there? Maybe it isn’t a dance at all, but a song that you sing by yourself, in the shower or the car when nobody is around. Maybe it isn’t even “worship” in your mind, but only the fact that you like to sing but can’t bear for anyone to hear.
Can I encourage you in something?
When you sing simply for the love of the song, you are singing because of joy and that joy comes from somewhere, from someONE. Yes, the song that spills out in the moments of solitude, the dance that explodes when we don’t care who sees, all are simply overflows of our heart, and when that overflow is joy and love for our Creator, it is more than just a song and dance.
It is worship.