Dancing

One of my absolute favorite things to enjoy these days is to see my granddaughter Makaiya dance to the music of her electronic toys. Makaiya isn’t standing or walking yet but she bobs her head side to side to the beat of the music and to the delight of her Pappy. Her sheer joy and exuberance is contagious as well as entertaining. I hope her life is filled with moments of dancing! Now, those words probably until the day I die will always stick about half way up because I grew up in a household that was dead set against the devil’s tool of dancing that lured so many innocent youths into debauchery and illicit affairs of the flesh (we weren’t sure what debauchery was but we knew it was bad stuff)! So, in elementary school I had to explain to my teacher that I couldn’t circle with the other kids singing, “B*I*N*G*O, and Bingo was his name’o…,” because well, we don’t dance. Now, don’t get me wrong… I appreciate my parent’s desire to instill holiness into how I viewed the world (even when I got my mouth washed out with soap a few times) but the end result is it gave a skewed view of what the Bible actually says about dancing and left me and many of my generation rhythmically challenge and card carrying left footers! But somewhere in the mix of all of this I landed with two feet squarely on the dance floor with the same wish for myself as I have for my grandchildren… a life filled with moments of dancing!

Now, before you get irate about the thought of a dancing preacher let me remind you of what Scripture actually says about dancing. The words translated dance (and its various forms) total less than thirty references in Scripture. The majority of them are positive references that range from Miriam and the Israelite maidens dancing with tambourines and singing praises for being rescued from Egyptian pursuit, to David dancing before the ark in praise and adulation over the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Jesus uses dancing to illustrate joyous celebration in the story of the prodigal son and the Psalms end with an exhortation to praise God with dancing. Yes, the Israelites were dancing before the golden calf and Herodias’ daughter danced before Herod for John the Baptist head and yes, yes, yes, the works of the flesh in Galatians 5 include revelry which is drunken dancing. But by far the idea of dancing in Scripture is just as Makaiya already knows… it’s an expression of joy… a rhythmic exuberance that is in tune with praise, adulation and appreciation.

Dancing is joyous and natural! Can there be “dirty dancing?” Yes, even Hollywood knows that! This Sunday I guarantee that there will be dancing at church… that is, toes will be tapping to music, kids will unplug their joyous energy and bust a move and the hearts that we celebrate our Lord with will beat to a rhythm! May all this dancing be great adulation for the one who created us, sustains us and calls us to His side! And may all our lives be filled with moments of dancing! –DAN