singing, with a little bit of dancing

last night, one of my trip mates posted a video of my team singing and dancing a Swati song that some members of our community taught us.  While the video is hilarious (primarily due to the completely lack of rhythm of one teammate), it actually represents an important point in my trip.  The lyrics of the chorus are:

There's no one, there's no one like Jesus
There's no one, there's no one like Him.
There's no one, there's no one like Jesus
There's no one, there's no one like Him.

Then we sing in siSwati about looking for someone like Jesus but always coming up empty.  Please don't expect me to write the siSwati part - I would butcher a beautiful language.

If you had asked me a few months ago, whether I would ever sing a Bible school song like that in public, I would have rolled my eyes.  I was raised Irish Catholic and while we are as devout as they come, our relationship with God tends to be more formal and private.  Every Sunday night, when someone starts clapping during Mass, I always think of a Catholic friend of mine who cringes at the sound of clapping: "We are Catholic! We don't clap in Church. We sit, kneel, and stand. That's it." He will then mutter something about a "hippie mass."  Part of me loves the more open and relaxed atmosphere of Sunday evening Mass, but it took a while for me to get there.  Catholic Mass is rather regimented and probably seems quite strange to a newcomer.  Yes, we do sit, kneel, and stand and it can be tough to catch on.

I think that is why I was surprised on my first day when a swarm of children singing (and dancing) to "Jesus Loves Me" had me in tears. It was far from what I was used to but it was so beautiful and pure and innocent.  And that next night, I felt that same purity and innocence (and a sizeable amount of amusement) as we sang for our group.  I realized that faith and religion takes many forms, even among Christians.  We may be united in some fundamental beliefs but can diverge rather quickly and then allow ourselves to be defined by differences, rather than similarities.  Maybe all it takes is one chorus of "Jesus Loves Me" to bring us all back together.