Dancing with the Divine Fire

Beloved CAC faculty member Dr. Barbara Holmes, known to her students affectionately as “Dr. B.,” passed away in late 2024. A giant in our contemplative community, she embodied a rare wisdom and impacted countless people. In a video recorded for Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations shortly before her death, Dr. B. shared her experience of dancing with God in a time of uncertainty about her health:  

In more recent years, I’ve had my own dance with the divine. My health declined suddenly and precipitously. When a hip operation was postponed for a year because of other health concerns, I pondered in despair: I would be wheelchair bound for a year?   

It was at that moment that God asked, “May I have this dance?”  

“Dance?” I was outraged. “What do you mean dance? I can’t even walk.”  

And the answer came back, “Your spirit knows the steps. Breathe, relax, breathe.”   

I let go of my fears, my concerns, and melted into the arms of a loving Savior as we danced to an ethereal music of the heart that neither of us could hear. You don’t need to hear music. Life has a rhythm of its own. And when you’re out of sync, you must get aligned with the rhythm of life.  

Dr. “B.” found a God who dances when she looked to the Hebrew Scriptures:  

How do I know that God dances? There are only three chapters in the Book of Zephaniah. The first two chapters are rough going. God’s complaints against the people include worship of idols, deification of sun, moon, and stars, and self-sufficiency so complete that there’s no need to depend on God. But then:   

The Lord, your God, is in your midst,  
    a mighty savior,  
Who will rejoice over you with gladness,  
    and renew you in his love,  
Who will sing joyfully because of you,  
     as on festival days. 
—Zephaniah 3:17–18  

What a surprise! Zephaniah takes us from destruction to dance and song…. As Steve Fry explains, “God’s joy knows no bounds…. In the Hebrew, [joy] literally means ‘to become excited to the point of dancing in a whirlwind’,” or dancing with such abandon that only a whirlwind can describe it. And while God is dancing, God also sings loudly. Fry continues, “Most translators have chosen a less vigorous description for our English Bibles because they can’t conceive of a God of such emotional intensity.” [1] But why not? Physicists tell us that the universe is made up of dancing particles and strings throughout the cosmos.…   

But where does the fire come in? Well, we know we can’t see God’s countenance and live. God appears in the elements of nature, a cloud, fire, and wind. For Moses, the burning bush is God. I believe that fire, the element “shut up in our bones” [see Jeremiah 20:9], is always a part of the dance. It awakens us, it helps us to dream, it clears away debris.   

Whatever is going on in your life right now, this too shall pass. Where do you find your joy? If you don’t know how to dance, don’t worry. Your soul knows the steps. Wherever life finds you, don’t forget to dance and sing with the God who dances like the whirlwind with you.   

Reference:  
[1] Steve Fry, I Am: The Unveiling of God (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2000), 204.   

Adapted from Barbara Holmes, 2024 Daily Meditations Theme: Radical Resilience: Dancing with Divine Fire, Center for Action and Contemplation, video, 10:09.