Disco Dancing with Jesus-A devotion used for youth group night

Tonight our theme is Disco Night and in a little bit we will be going downstairs to our dance club to try our hand at some disco dance moves. Knowing that we would be doing some dancing tonight got me thinking about the idea of dancing and about the disco era.

There was time when disco was very popular. There were movies about disco-Saturday Night Fever was one of them. There were disco dance clubs, dance contests, and many disco albums out. Disco was not just a type of music it was a way of living, of being. There were disco clothes to wear, there was the type of music you listened to, there were specific dance moves you needed to learn and practice. If you wanted to be in the dance contests you had to find a partner and spend time with each other learning the dance moves. If you were really into disco dancing it took up a lot of your time and your money.

So, how do disco dancing and our theme for this night fit in with church, with learning about our faith and ways to grow in our faith? Well, in many ways to live our lives in Christ take some of the same things it took to be a part of the disco scene in the 1970’s. Being a Christian is a way of living. It is not a one-time deal, a weekend activity you do once or twice. It is making a lifetime commitment to belief and faith in Jesus Christ. It is making choices that will help us grow in Christ. Choosing to go to church, Christian Ed., youth group. Choosing friends who will help us grow, not cause us to make poor choices. Choosing to spend time reading our Bibles, praying, learning about what it means to be a Christian.

To be a good disco dancer you had to practice. As Christians we also need to practice. We need to find ways to continue to grow in our life with Christ. We need to spend 20-30 minutes a day reading our Bibles and praying. We need to spend time with Christ being quiet and listening to God speak to us. We need to spend time with others- finding out what they need us to pray about for them, ways we can help them. We should find ways to live out our belief in Christ. We can do good things for others, share a smile, rake a yard, go on a mission trip, give an offering at church and Sunday School.

True disco dancers devoted a lot of time and money to their activities. As Christians we need to give our faith time and energy in order for us to grow. We need to set aside time each day to spend with God. We should give of our finances and abilities, too. If we are good at something, it is a gift from God and we should find ways to use those talents to make Christ known in the world. Some of us are singers, dancers, musicians, actors, artists—we can use that to share God’s love with others. Some of us have strength, time, the gift of visiting, of listening. We can use that to visit nursing homes, our neighbors, our friends who are struggling.

I hope we all have as one of the disco songs called it, Dance Fever. That we all get excited about dancing with Christ and sharing our love with the world.

Thoughts from Caribou Coffee

It is my day apart and so I am sitting at Caribou having my new favorite coffee drink, Pumpkin Spice coffee steamer. Oh my goodness, it is tasty!! I have a new laptop which I have had for almost a month and have used twice. This is the first time I have ever gone online with it thanks to some problems we are having with our router at home. So, now that I know for myself that I do have the right connections I have to figure out what to do with the router at home. I really want to be able to sit in bed and go online to do my blogging, write emails, etc. So, I will definitely make a big effort to get that router fixed.

I like having this interesting way to be working but relaxing. I like this community in a small place. There are two women having an intense conversation at a small table. Another table has two men discussing their church and developing strong mission statements. A funeral director and another man are at another table. Earlier there was a student doing some studying at that same table. I am truly enjoying the music playing from up above and the constant hum of voices in this place. I can hear voices and pick out words but not whole conversations. It is a soothing sound. I am finding myself actually tuning it all out as I write. Must mean that I am really concentrating or that it is just so relaxing that it just becomes part of me.

Last night we had the bigget group we have ever had for Sign a Way group. And two of the regulars weren't there. We actually worked on a real skit that takes more than 3 people. They are getting really good at signing their song. Casting Crowns-Lifesong is a wonderful song to sign. The words have very expressive signs, which is very important when choosing a song to do for worship. The idea of signing the song is that it is expressive, is artistic, and has a very good message. Pam brought that song to mission trip this summer and I taught some of the signs to the group then. We hope to do this song for worship this month.

We did cookie baking last night as well. I didn't go get extra mixes but we did bake a lot of cookies in an hour since I found some cake mix and brownie mix in the pantry. We had five youth there to bake and that was wonderful. There is so much opportunity to visit with the youth during this time. They share so many things and we can really discuss issues if they come up and the whole time we are making cookies that will be served at coffee time after church. It is a really wonderful relationship building time.

Nothing profound today to write about. I am just content to relax as I drink my coffee, enjoy the hujm of conversations and look up and view all the people in conversation with each other. That is fun for me. I have definitely started my day off right today.