When I was in my early 20's dancing was my life. I danced as many nights a week as I could. I helped run a dance venue on Friday nights with a few friends. I lived and breathed dancing. I would sit in sacrament exhausted from the dancing I enjoyed the night before and see waltzing in my head every time we sang a hymn that was a 3/4 beat.
West Coast Swing is similar enough to the Lindy Hop that we would dance with the lindys. While Lindy Hoping I heard the phrase "the gospel of swing." This phrase started to bother me the more I thought about it. I had no qualms about sharing my love of dance with others. I would tell and invite anyone that would listen. But what about the Gospel, the good word of Christ? Who was I proclaiming that, too?
Well, everyone I knew was either active or had already heard about it and made their decision and I didn't want to push them farther away. And I didn't want to offend anyone. And it doesn't come up that often. And....it was just more fun to talk about swing. When I get an opportunity I'll talk about it. That's reasonable, right?
A few yeas ago I started doing essentrics, a stretching and strengthening workout. I love doing this workout. I like it better than yoga because it's constant movement, I have a hard time holding poses. It stretches my body in ways that it normally doesn't get stretched and my body feels so good when I do essentrics. I think everyone should stretch so I think that everyone should do essentrics. I could proclaim my love of essentrics to everyone. I would even like to become certified to teach so I can know more about it and be able to help others.
My desire to share essentrics with everyone started to remind me of the gospel of swing. And as I pondered on dance, essentrics and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I learned a few things.
I realized that my love of and my desire to share essentrics with others is directly related to how often I participate in it.
When I danced my participation never wavered, so neither did my zeal. Dance was important enough to me that it was a priority, I never forgot about it, I never let things get in the way of it when I could help it.
Essentrics is a little different. I have to make an effort to make it a priority. It's important to me, but it's easy to let it fall by the wayside if I don't keep focused on it and remember why I love it and why I should do it.
Essentrics reminds me of the Gospel. I love the Gospel. Living the Gospel has benefited me in many ways. I know it is important and necessary, necessary for the whole of the human race, but I have to make an effort to make it a priority. So many things can get in the way if I let it. I have to remind myself everyday why I follow Jesus and keep His commandments. Why I do the things I do and how much I love it.
The more we participate in the Gospel, in our own salvation, the more we love it, and the greater our zeal for sharing it will grow. When we participate daily it will be on our minds and will be easier to share with others. Dance was easy to share because I thought about it all the time. When I make Christ the focus of my thoughts and my day and the reason for what I do with my day, it is so much easier to share Him with those around me. When I am living it, it is easy to tell others what I am doing with my day, and thus create an opportunity to share the Gospel with others.
I love dance and I love essentrics, but neither of those mean anything without the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I wouldn't have either of those things without Him.
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