Do You Know How to 2 Step?

Shortly after we moved to Texas in 1982, Pam and I discovered that 2-Step is considered dancing in Texas.  To a native, multi-generational Texan, if you can’t 2-Step, don’t waste the dance floor!  We discovered if danced properly, the 2-Step becomes an elegant dance.  Experienced 2-Stepper’s glide gracefully across the dance floor on a single plain. A number of times, I have laughed respectfully observing rough looking, seemingly uneducated cowboys gently holding hands with their “gal” as they approached the dance floor.  These men seamlessly transformed into a different person as their head and shoulders moved up and back, chin lifted up gliding their lady gracefully cross the dance floor.  The good two-stepper knows that timing is crucial. You don’t want to get behind, and you don’t want to get ahead. You want to step at the right time.  To me, the real dancer is the lady who synchronizes with the lead of her man step by step.  I have no idea how my wife, Pam, follows me while being my dance partner, but she does…anticipating my slight nudge or pull one-step-at-a-time.  She makes me look good…maybe “decent” is a better word 😊.

Believe it or not, Galatians 5:25 pictures a beautiful dance.  The Holy Spirit leads out step-by-step, and we synchronously follow. ^“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”  Following the Holy Spirit, timing is crucial. You don’t want to get behind Him, you don’t want to get ahead of Him. You want to be just in step with him.  Oftentimes, we get way out in front or lazily fall behind.  When we do, the dance is no longer full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control but becomes disjointed and frustrating to all concerned.    

Ephesians 5:18 commands us to “be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Once we are, the Bible explains in the next couple of verses the joy of wholly following and keeping in step with Him, “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  There will be praise and thanksgiving in our heart.  

Learn to keep in step with the Spirit wholly following Him. Nehemiah 8:10 encourages God’s people to give Him their full attention, and “The joy of the Lord will be their strength”.