I was inspired last night by the flying feet of a four-year-old.

The worship practice and final run through for our upcoming Sunday service had just begun when little Tala came through the door with her mother who runs the sound booth. Her usual playmates absent on this particular night, she was forced to entertain herself. And so she danced... and danced... and danced!!! With every song she started moving the moment the music did, head bobbing, arms in motion and feet fairly flying off the floor as she bounced and twirled, letting the joy in her heart come out through her toes!

Distracting? Delightfully so! I could barely concentrate at all, so fascinated was I by her total freedom in expressing what she was feeling! I longed to put my violin down and join her in that dark expanse of empty floor. I told myself that I didn't want to inhibit her in any way, so totally unaware was she in that moment of anyone else in the room. Yet sadly I realized that I carry a lot of weight she has yet to gain, pounds of peer pressure and fear that keep my feet nailed to the floor instead of flying freely as hers did. So I stayed where I was,but my spirit danced along with her and her joy was contagious, reaching not just into the depths of my heart but all the way into the hallways of Heaven where it surely put a smile on the face of the King.

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."
(John 4:24 NIV)

"Dandy" Don Meredith died Sunday at the age of 82. Many of us became lifelong fans of Monday Night Football in the days when he was a television broadcaster in the booth with Howard Cosell, Keith Jackson or Frank Gifford. We didn't turn our TV sets off on those evenings until his signature rendition of the Willie Nelson tune, The Party's Over, signaled the virtual end of the game. On Sunday the party was over for Don.

But is it really? We are eternal beings, and even as our physical lives on earth end, our spiritual lives continue on in heaven or hell, based on the choices we make while we were here. Frankly, we don't have to wonder where we'll be. Party invitations have already been sent out; God is simply waiting on our RSVP. If we fail to respond, then life hereafter will truly be hell. But for the Christian who is set to leave this world with God in his heart, the real party is only just about to start.

"We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."
(2 Corinthians 5:8 RSV)