Take me to Church
Get up on your feet or down on your knees
I am a sucker for Gospel music. I mean, give me a good Gospel choir and I will be on my feet, swinging my arms and swaying, ready to believe any Good News the Good Lord, Jesus or whoever can belt out a prayerful tune like that tells me. Gospel is pure joy for me, reminding me of the dilapidated shack church in the shadow of Houston’s glass skyscrapers that I attended as a child in which I had my first real taste of spirituality. (see the upcoming Juneteenth - June 19 - post, Raise It Up)
Gospel music hits a chord in me that goes deep into my humanity, to the part that rejoices - Can I hear you say it? - REJOICES. That wants to get up on my feet and dance and holler “Hallelujah!” simply because I AM ALIVE and the people in front of me are putting every ounce of their being into raising their voices in praise and joy.
The same is true for dance. I studied ballet for many years and put my heart and soul into becoming a ballet dancer. I spent hours and hours with sore muscles and bandaged toes, pirouetting and leaping across the floor because when I did, I felt that indescribable exhilaration and gratitude for being alive that very little else - except Gospel music - evoked. I can’t pirouette anymore without worrying about breaking a hip, but when I watch Svetlana Zakharova or Lil’ Buck dance The Dying Swan, I am down on my knees.
This is my church.
My job as a radical interfaith/interspiritual minister is not to preach at you. It’s not to quote scripture (yeah, I do it sometimes) or tell you how to get to heaven or Nirvana. It’s not to lead you to God. If I am to be any good at what I do, I need to help you experience God or whatever you call it. I need to share my own experience of being touched by something greater than ourselves. I need to inspire you to experience yourselves at your deepest humanity and Divinity, and feel - I mean, FEEL - your aliveness, your connection to one another and whatever you call sacred.
It isn’t enough to take you to church. I need to show you what church feels like.
While the videos below are not the same as being the presence of a great dancer or a full Gospel choir, I’m trying to bring you with me to the Church of Radical Alive-ness. I hope these offerings give you the feeling of connection, joy and wonder that they give me. I hope they inspire you to experience what a gift it is to be alive, how infinitely creative and amazing this world is, and how very, very lucky we are to be part of it.
I hope they bring you to your feet or your knees.
Music has often been a part of my most uplifting past spiritual experiences in a religious context...From the rapture and celebratory singing and dancing at a Hare Krishna temple to experiencing God as the band played at an evangelical church service, to the social dances at a Mohawk powwow. This post resonates!