Heartbeat

Last week I mentioned Andy Hunter's Presence Project - a creative app that weaves together music, film, poetry and photography to deepen people’s connection to God. Over the years I have been involved in the project and written a number of poetic reflections that you can read, and listen to, on the app. This week, I thought I would share them here too.

Heatbeat was my response when I first heard Andy's music for the Over the Water chapter, based on Psalm 29 v3: "The voice of the Lord is over the waters...".  I was struck by the background beat in the piece that amplifies and changes, and yet somehow remains constant. It made me reflect on how I hear God's voice and my own faith journey - faith, for me, has always been a contant but within the certainty there have been questions and challenges and dreams and changes. Faith changes, flows and grows. Faith is like a dance.

I recently came across an article by a Canadian rector, Alastair McCollum, who put it beautifully like this:
I personally like the image of faith as a dance – it involves movement, it’s dynamic, energetic, constantly changing. Yes, there are certain steps which are named and have a certain form – but there is also room for improvisation, exploration, leaping, falling, quietness, joy, exuberance, discovery.
And like any dance it doesn’t have to be explained, in fact to reduce it only to words would strip it of the power, and the beauty, challenge, and wonder that it possesses. 
And in the dance, I learn to trust in the music, the movement, my partners, as I allow myself to fully join in with the attempt to add shape and purpose to the steps of my life, and to invite others to join in order that we might be transformed and transform the world with God’s life.

I heard his heartbeat.
A child held tight in Father's loving arms,
Knowing safety,
Shielded from the storms.
In the closeness the beat was unmistakable.
Dependable.

I heard his heartbeat.
Stepping out in faith and hope,
Dreams soaring,
Growing in the rhythm I knew so well.
In the walking the beat was steady.
Strong.

I thought I heard his heartbeat.
I knew my Father,
Walked with him,
Re-telling the stories from my youth.
In my remembering the beat was unchanging.
Predictable.
Fading.
Dull?

Did I hear his heartbeat?
Was that the beat I knew?
It skipped a beat.
Pulsating patterns,
Unpredictable.
Untamed.
I cannot assume routine within this rhythm.
I can only stop and listen,
Breath held,
Heart pounding.

I have heard his heartbeat.
And it now dares me to dance.

He
Dares me
To dance to his heartbeat.

So together we will dance.
Ballerina-like with powerful precision
Each step guided with easy grace.
Until I dance with freedom.
Movements flowing like ribbons caught by the wind.
Ripping across the calm waters.
Cartwheeling,
Like a gymnast moving corner to corner across the mat,
But I will not stop there,
God is not confined by the boundaries set by man.
I will dance my dreams again.
Spread my wings,
and fly,
moved by the wind,
carried over the waves.

This is his heartbeat.
This our dance.
Ever constant.
Ever changing.