Respect for One Another

Genre literature can span across soaring scenes and dark conflicts, uplift and challenge. In a sense, it is all-encompassing. However, it probably should be viewed upon as individual art. Same goes with music and performance. Tools of communication, nourishment for the soul, artistic expression or entertainment—it all has value.

I've come to the conclusion that no matter what we do, act on, express, absorb, it’s "For in him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28). I listen to music that personally appeals to my tastes and inspires/feeds the artist in me. My library is eclectic because I never know what I’ll discover beneath a book cover—and I find that exciting. I study the Bible and faith-based material because I get to know the nature of God who made and loves me. And although my dance shoes are long retired, I can move in a variety of styles at will. Yet while I do these things, I trust and ask that the Holy Spirit will convict me if something is displeasing. Still, not everybody understands.

Our steps are ordained by the One who lays them out. No two steps are the same, our tastes vary, and our individual wiring is altogether different. What might be right for one person might not be for another. We are each on our own path and need to listen with our own ears, yet we must stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the race of life. This is a mystery. We might operate poles apart, but we are each needed to make a whole.