Tuesday, January 30, 2024 Dancing the Twist
Read: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Dancing to the Twist
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance.
(Ecclesiastes 3:4, NRSVUE)
Solomon might describe all our days as dancing the Twist – that dance craze of the 60’s made popular by Chubby Checker. Throughout the song, we twist our body to the right and then to the left. Both moves are part of the whole dance.
Ecclesiastes echoes a similar message to John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer, in which Wesley “yields all things to Thy [God’s] pleasure and disposal.” Life’s reality entails both light and darkness. Life encompasses both twists to the joyful as well as turns to the sorrowful, both planting and reaping, embracing, and parting. Different moves but both are part of the same dance of life.
The good news is God will guide us through each movement and use both for His eternal purposes. God is present, directing our path, whether the dance of life twists us to the left or to the right (Isaiah 30:21).
Be still and Reflect: How is God calling you to think differently about your earthly life today and His presence in it?
Pray: Almighty, Loving God, You know that I prefer the joyful times to the sorrowful ones. I prefer harvesting to the back-breaking work of laboring. I prefer gaining to losing. But whichever state of living I experience, help me remain strong in faith that You are there. Open my ears to hear Your voice, pointing me in the direction I should go and walking that way. Help me to dance the Twist, and to do it with gusto that glorifies You. In the name of Your Son, Jesus, Amen.
Gloria