Step In Time
“Step in time, step in time. Never Need a reason, never need a rhyme. You step in time, you step in time.”
These are lyrics from a song in the beloved Disney classic, Mary Poppins. Dick Van Dyke, who plays the chimney sweep Bert with his famously questionable Cockney accent, sings a song, which invites others to dance along with him. On the rooftops of London, Bert calls on his chimney sweep colleagues to join him in an elaborate dance routine, and then he eventually invites Mary to join in too (“Mary Poppins, step in time!”) and she does.
John’s Gospel talks widely about abiding in Jesus. To abide in Jesus is to follow His commands—as 1 John 3:24 tells us. And I think of that abiding in Jesus as a keeping “in-step” with Him, with the Spirit giving us the wisdom to know how to do so. To do what He does, speak as He speaks and love as He loves. In any given situation: what Jesus is calling me to do—in my work place and professional relationships, with my family and friends, at church, in the grocery line, at the doctor’s office or at the gym. How is Jesus asking me to keep “in-step” with Him?
Sometimes, Jesus asks us to step in time like Bert in Mary Poppins, in a high-paced dance routine. It’s moving and jiving, in a haze of activity. Other times it’s a slow waltz, the fast-slow pace of a tango, the fun of a salsa, the beautiful elegance of ballet or the in-the-air, upside-down disorientation of aerial dance.
Sometimes we want to go slow, but Jesus’ call is to up the tempo. Other times (and perhaps more commonly), we want to go faster, but Jesus slows us down.
Whatever the pace, the routine, the drama or delight, the core is the same: we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, looking to the Spirit for His next move. We need to watch so others do not sideline or distract. Just do what He asks: nothing more, nothing less. His grace is there right with you to sustain you. It is enough. Just step in time!
“All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.”
1 John 3:24
