Thought for the week - Introducing ourselves to the great music maker of the Trinity

​But, as he used to say, when it came to waltzes or fox trots, he felt like an ignoramus.

Being the rational, cerebral type of person he was, he thought to himself: “I’ll buy a book all about dancing, just as I purchased one all about computers!” And he did.

He was anxious to surprise his wife in a few weeks’ time with his new skill, so, late every evening, he’d lock himself in his study, get his book out, play the CD and start practicing the steps!

After a time, he invites his wife into the study and goes through his paces.

At the end, as he flops into a chair, he exclaims: “There you are! What do you think of that? Didn’t I execute the dance perfectly!?"

His wife looked at him in silence for a few minutes, shaking her head! “You certainly did execute it!,” she said, “you killed it!”

“What do you mean? replied her husband, rather disappointed and disgruntled.

“Well”, said his wife, “you forgot the most important part – the music!!”

That little story reminds us of the Christian life, does it not? Sometimes we can be so tight on following the rules and proclaiming what we believe that we ‘forget the music.’

It is possible to set out on the ‘dance floor’ of the Christian life with the book but with no music in our hearts, no animation.

That is why on the night before His own death, when the disciples were getting anxious with all this talk about Him ‘going away’, that Jesus introduced them to the great music maker of the Trinity – the Holy Spirit.

He is the One who, on this Feast of Pentecost, can lead us on into the dance of the Christian life which is to be consummated in, what Belfast-born Christian academic C S Lewis called, the great dance of heaven.

So don’t forget! Dance the dance!!