Tag Archive - Dancing

Power of One

September 14, 2010 in Faith with 0 Comments

A few months ago a video surfaced which showed a man dancing at a music festival.  He was dancing alone.  At first glance you would think he was crazy, however within three minuets hundreds of people joined him.  They were all dancing, having a good time, all because this one person started something.  Blogger  Seth Godin said it was not the first guy that was important but it was Guy #3 who is important.

…. it’s guy #3 who made it a movement.  Initiators are rare indeed, but it’s scary to be the leader. Guy #3 is rare too, but it’s a lot less scary and just as important. Guy #49 is irrelevant. No bravery points for being part of the mob.

For me, it is the power of one.  It was one person who danced and did not give up — perhaps his intent was not to create a mob, but it happened.

If you have not seen it before here is the video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA8z7f7a2Pk

I thought of this video after worship service at Camp Calumet on Labor Day weekend.  During the last song there were a few kids who started to dance.  By the end of there were about 10 kids dancing at the front of the worship space.  It was awesome, because of the power of one.  Here is the video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2aw8g8AnfU

How are you using your power of one in the world?

I like to dance

June 11, 2009 in Faith with 0 Comments

Those of you who came to see a video of me dancing might be disappointed.

But there is a video I would like to share with you that has been making it’s way around the internet.

The video is from the 2009 Sasquatch Music Festival.  It is of a man dancing.  Now that by itself  might not be news.  However, the dancing man is suddenly joined by someone else and before you know there are hundreds of people dancing.  If you don’t believe me check the video out!

This video has been called inspirational, this video been described as a way to promote perseverance and determination within us all.  The reviews I have read have been right on.

But I see something else in this video.

I see this video revealing something about our society in general. I think we as a society are still too quick to judge someone because of who they are, what they look like or things that they might do. For example, the man in the video is not a good dancer, we expect him to fail, we expect him to feel embarrassed by his actions and to sit down.  It reminds me of Susan Boyle, who walked on stage and was almost booed off until she started to sing; and now she is an international star.  We too often look at someone, quickly judge them and then we are surprised when they produce something good.

It doesn’t matter if the person is too fat or skinny, too white or black- or anything else that we use to judge someone it is not right.

This happens in the church as well.  In too many congregations we are quick to judge if “they” walk into “our” church not dressed the way we would like them to be or not act like we think they should.  We start to push them away before we really get to know them and accept them as a child of God.

My prayer is that we can look past that and see who is on the inside. Or like the man in the video – if we think we are not being treated fairly because of what we look like or how we might act in certain situations, that we can keep dancing and doing what we think is right until the crowd starts to follow us.