Sunsets & salsa

Sometimes the little joys in life are the things that keep us going...the times when God gives us a little piece of heaven and reminds us of his beauty and love for us...lately, two of those joys have been sunsets & salsa. We have had some really amazing sunsets and a group of my friends make a habit of watching the sunset from Deck 8 a few evenings a week. I have named it "The Sunset Club" and while I made fun of them for it initially, now I am always grateful when I head up there and find that my friends are already there enjoying God's beautiful creation. We have also started having worship nights where a few of us play guitar and sing worship songs at dusk. There have been some incredible moments of God's presence in the middle of it all.

View of the sunset from Deck 8



Another thing that has brought me so much joy has been salsa...no, not the kind you put on your taco...salsa dancing. I have always loved dancing and learned salsa when I was in college. So, when I found out that there were salsa lessons here in Sierra Leone,  I was ecstatic about the whole thing and made sure to recruit as many friends as I could. Salsa has been going strong now for about a month and a half and it has been such a fun activity for everyone. I love watching my friends get excited about it and seeing them improve with all their dance moves. It seems like such a random thing to do in West Africa, but there's a small part of me that wants to believe that God thought of me when it all came together...after all, He does know our hearts and all our desires...even the little things that don't seem to matter to anyone else.

A few friends practicing their salsa steps



One thing that dancing has shown me over the years is that I often like to take the lead. It works out alright when my friends are learning and need a bit of guidance.  But, once they start getting the hang of things, the guys don't want to be led around...they want to lead...and rightly so. And I can't help but think that life is a bit like dancing. So many times, I try to tell God what I want to do next or which move I want to make when He has a better plan. It's so easy to get caught up in what we want or we anticipate until we find ourselves taking steps that He never intended for us...and when there is resistance and pulling in opposite directions, it will inevitably lead to disaster and the beautiful dance is lost.

But the opposite is true as well...when we stop trying to control what He's doing in our lives and let Him lead, the result is always something exciting and so much more amazing than what we could've ever come up with on our own. Who knew that God could use something like salsa dancing to teach me all of that...I guess some of our best lessons are learned through life's simple pleasures.