Dancing In The Streets! – Ian Cron

My alarm clock randomly selected the Martha and the Vandellas song Dancing in the Streets to wake me at 5:00am this morning. My first two thoughts of the day were that the sound of the snare drum on that song is supernaturally amazing, and secondly, the Wild Goose Festival is only 43 days away!

I was into my second cup of coffee when I figured out why these two seemingly unrelated thoughts came one right after the other.

My soul is crying out for a little dancing in the streets.

Thomas Merton opened his 1967 Advent-Christmas letter with the words, “The days are difficult. They call for courage and faith.” Those words ring as true today as they did forty-three years ago. I can barely watch or read the news without feeling desolate.

Yes, I’ve read the Bible.

Yes, I know how the story ends. Still, things are tough out there and it can get discouraging.

I need to be with old friends and with friends waiting to be made. I want to wag my butt to great music as an act of protest against the darkness, I want to hear prophetic words spoken not just by well-known speakers but from friends chatting late into the night around a campfire; I want to laugh so hard that any cynicism lurking in my heart will be washed away; I need to be moved to give my life more fully to God’s plan to restore our world by being with people who are more committed to it than I am.

In other words, when the Wild Goose Festival is over, I want to be me again, only more.

It will only happen if four things occur.

1. I show up.

2. I show up with ears that hear and eyes that see.

3. I show up ready to extend a spirit of hospitality to all.

4. The Holy Spirit shows up (or the Wild Goose as the Celts called him).

I feel certain the Holy Spirit will show up, so I’m asking him to prepare my heart for numbers one and two to happen for me and everyone else who shows up.