Making Moments

Holy Mischief Challenge: Make a Moment

On Friday I challenged a group to have a dance party over the weekend. There were no guidelines. It could be as simple as putting on music in your kitchen and dancing with your family or fur-babies. Or it could be bigger.

I had decided to take the simple route. Kitchen dancing is a favorite of mine. That was until my daughter’s orchestra concert. This wasn’t an ordinary concert with traditional etiquette. It was more like a rock concert. They played “Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns N/ Roses and “Take Me Out” by Frank Ferdinand. It was amazing!

The leader of the orchestra told us to feel free to come up to the front and dance.  And of course no one did. She mentioned it again. And no one did. I felt the irony and tension of issuing this challenge. I now had an opening and was too chicken to take it. I asked the family and friends in my row to go up and join me. Apparently they don’t serve enough (any) alcohol at school events for them to do something so benign yet daring. Finally the leader said, “If there was a song you were going to dance to, this is it!” It was “Shut Up and Dance with me” by Walk the Moon. So I got up and danced.

Why would I challenge a group of people to have a dance party? Is there any purpose beyond the act of moving to music?

In “The Power of Moments” Chip and Dan Heath caution, “Beware of the soul-sucking force of ‘reasonableness’ otherwise you risk deflating your peaks. Speed bumps are reasonable. Mount Everest is not reasonable.” When we create a “moment” or do something that disrupts the ‘reasonableness’ of life we connect with something greater than us. Moments break the script of the world and if done with someone you love, creates a moment of love. A moment of connection. A moment to perhaps glimpse the Divine.

I’m not sure that I experienced God in a big transformational way during my dance party. But I did stretch myself. I did make a memory with my family. And I had fun! And the sum of all my fun memories make me who I am and who God created me to be.

So if you haven’t done it yet, DANCE! Or at least listen for an opening to disrupt the reasonableness and create a peak. I promise it will be worth it.

Until Everyone Hears,

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