Spiritual Lessons from Zumba

I have started a journey (once again) toward eating healthy and exercising regularly. I find that the only exercise I don't have to psych myself out for is Zumba. Now, let me clarify, I am not in any way a dancer. I do however try really hard and have a great time laughing at my blundering attempts to stay on beat, go in the right direction, and get my hips to move. To be honest, I look like a fool, but I love it.

Since I am not a dancer and rhythm does not come easily to me I find my eyes glued to the back of the instructor. Occasionally, I feel a level of comfort enough to look up and really get into it, but there is always the fall back of the teacher with her huge smile and her gyrating hips that I can look to. Many times I stand there staring thinking "How can she get her body to do that?"

Yesterday, as I was "dancing" I started thinking about spiritual things. See Paul repeatedly told the believers he wrote to to follow him. He admonished them to live the kind of life they had witnessed he lived. He told them to emulate him. Last night in Zumba I saw this command differently.

There are some people whom God has gifted to easily listen to music, find the rhythm, and move with beauty and grace. There are others like myself who can try all they want to, but will probably always be a step behind with awkward movement. It is the same spiritually. Some people easily understand and communicate spiritual things. They can commune with God with ease. They see life through the lens of how God is moving. Other people struggle to see the spiritual. They have a desire to commune with God, but often find they don't know how. They feel like spiritual matters are nothing but awkward blundering.

So comes Paul's directive: Follow me.

My Zumba instructor last night got us dancing by smiling, encouraging us, giving instruction like: "Pick up your feet," "Breathe," "Really get into it." She mastered the zone of proximal development by starting off easy. Then she would add in a few more moves of the arms or slightly faster feet. Then she would pull out something way beyond our skill level. She didn't stay there long, but just gave us a hint of where we could be after working at this for a while. Mostly, though, she taught us, by dancing in front of us. As she danced, I could watch what she did, and imitate it. I didn't imitate it well, but it was indeed a semblance of what she was doing.

So spiritual leaders do the same with those who spirituality does not come easily. They encourage with words. They instruct. They correct. But mostly they teach by living out their spirituality in front of others so that they can be emulated.