Music has a way of helping to calm the most turbulent situations. We play music to help put babies to sleep. Music is used to help create a calm environment for shoppers when they enter a store. Music helps calm the soul.
I was not surprised to read that music helped lead to a peaceful end to a 911 call. Jarrod Singh with the Durham Regional Police in Toronto was responding to a 911 call about a large fight in downtown. When Officer Singh arrived on the scene he found a group of students from a local college crowded around another person. He was worried about the safety of this one student in the middle of the group.
As Officer Singh approached the crowd to take control of the situation he quickly realized that it was not a fight, but rather a group of students filming a dance video. The situation turned from tense to relaxed quickly. The students were worried that they were in trouble for filming in the street, but Officer Singh made it clear to them he was not there to take anyone to jail. Instead, this officer of the peace joined in the dance.
To help further calm the situation Singh told the students that he had been a dancer in college. The students invited him to show off a few moves. Officer Singh and the student who was in the middle of the crowed began a hip-hop dance off that became an Internet video sensation.
When I saw this video, I was reminded of the power of music to speak into our lives. Music gives our hopes of joy and peace a rhythm and language. Throughout history, humanity’s hopes have found voice in music. When the music plays, it leads to actions that bring about joy to our world. It even helps students and police dance with joy in the midst of a culture that is tense and so often scared about the outcome of any interaction with others.
I hope today you will take some time to play some music; music that will bring you joy and help you see the beauty of the world around us. We truly have so much to be thankful for, so much to bring us happiness. We all have a reason to dance.
They cut me down
And I leapt up high;
I am the life
That’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you
If you’ll live in me –
I am the Lord
Of the Dance, said he.
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he.
(Lord of the Dance, Sydney Carter)
Rev. Keith King, Online Campus Pastor
