Last night a group called “Live the Life” held their fundraiser at Honey Lake. Their group is dedicated to strengthening marriages and families, and through the 15 years they have been doing this work they have earned a phenomenal record in helping couples who are seriously struggling in their marriages to save them. In fact their success rate is an amazing 90%. Mind you, that is not all they do, and an integral part of their program is working with young people and counseling them before they get married on such things as the hazards of premarital sex and considerations they should make prior to getting married.
Not surprisingly it is a Christian based organization and biblical principles are used to help build more solid relationships and to fortify marriages. They have developed a series of online tests to help determine compatibility and identify potential problems and those are used as tools by their professional counselors to assist with recommendations for success. They also are developing an innovative Facebook style phone application that can be used exclusively by couples that will enable them to keep in touch throughout the day and help build a stronger one on one spousal relationship.
They asked me to be their keynote speaker and I was checking out the room prior to the event and I noticed one of the ballrooms was completely devoid of tables and chairs. I asked the event coordinator what was up with that, and she smiled and told me they were going to have some sort of surprise dance.
Sure enough once the program got going, they convinced all but a few of us to form a “flash mob” and head for the dance floor. Two young ladies got up on a stage and literally taught the unruly “mob” how to perform a seemingly complex dance in just a few minutes. I was quite surprised at how bad they looked when they started, but how good they looked in the end.
Yikes! When they first got out there it seemed to be an impossible task. Some of them seemed totally devoid of rhythm and dancing skills and were unbelievably uncoordinated. To my utter amazement the two young ladies leading it had the mob “dancing like the stars” in unison, literally within a few minutes. After the dancing was over they returned to their seats laughing and obviously delighted with themselves, and it was clear that a great time was had by all.
Hmmm… I cannot help but think about the correlation between their organization’s work and this flash mob dance. All it took was a little instruction and practice for them to get it together. Those gals made dancing seem easy and fun; because once a few basics were covered it was fun! I suppose they do the same with their approach to marriage; (teach folks how to make it fun and proficient).
I wonder if a disorganized flash mob is how the world at large appears to God. Does He shake His head as He views our unruly flash mob civilization? Naw… He undoubtedly smiles as I did last night as He sees the transformation of those who are willing to take some instruction and practice a little.
Folks God has provided us with a Bible and it is loaded with instruction and leadership principles that will have the worst of us dancing our way through life like pros. Those who take the Bible seriously have their lives transformed from one of chaos, struggle, and strife to one of peace, joy, and love.
The choice is ours. Start reading the Bible today and go to church on Sundays. I used to think all of that religious stuff was for pansies and dorks. In fact I found just the opposite to be true.
Get on out there on dance floor of life – You’ll like the results.
James 3:17
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.