Dance!

“Life’s a dance” they say, and the parallel is quite fitting, as I’ve been reminded in my recent opportunities to participate in some English country dancing.  Besides being wonderful exercise, dance certainly tests one’s skill of mind, especially under pressure!  Learning the steps can make for plenty of amusing blunders, but once you’ve got it down, it’s a thrill to be part of perhaps a sizable crowd all moving together in time with the merry music.  Dancing is no idle game physically or mentally, and it also connects dramatically with our souls.  My grandma requested that we dance at her funeral, and for good reason: it’s very hard to dance and be sad at the same time!  Even in scripture, dancing is one of the highest expressions of joy and celebration – Miriam danced after the crossing of the Red Sea, the women danced after David killed Goliath, and David himself danced when the ark of God was brought to the city.  It’s a natural human reaction to overflowing joy – we just can’t keep still!

Dancing with others requires careful coordination and cooperation if it’s going to work smoothly.  So it is with life: we can’t make it work alone, and we can’t make it work well without doing our part and helping others do theirs.  As in an intricate dance, we each have a role to fulfill at the right time and place, and if we don’t step up when it is needed, the whole thing will go wrong.  It’s easy in life to imagine that we are not really needed, to stand by and watch while others take care of things.  Perhaps our part feels small and boring, like the corner position of a post jig.  But if we are not faithful with the role we happen to have, the people around us will suffer for it.  In the dance of life, we must work together!

And in order to work together, we must all be listening to the same directions.  One person may perform the steps of the Spanish waltz flawlessly, but if everyone else is dancing to a different tune, the result will be a complete failure.  So in life: we will run into each other with perhaps disastrous results if we are not all obediently under the direction of one dance Caller, God Himself.  He chooses the tune and the steps, and the results will be beautiful only if we pay close attention to His plan, and only His plan.  When we do, we will find success and thrilling joy.  God wants to have fun with us – the rules are not there to restrict us, but to guide us for the greatest enjoyment of His plan.  So dance!  Dance through life according to God’s perfect choreography, and whenever you get the chance, dance for joy on your own two feet!

Let them praise His name with the dance . . .

Psalm 149:3