God on the Dance Floor

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."  ~ Proverbs 3:5-6

While growing up, my experience with dancing was primarily vicarious.  Watching television shows like "Flashdance," and movies like "Footloose," and "Dirty Dancing," were about as close as I got to the dance floor for most of my teen years.  By my mid-twenties, my vast years of inexperience, and a few less-than-successful attempts at line dancing had convinced me that not only did I not know how to dance, but I was also incapable of learning.

Gratefully, in my late twenties, after a LOT of prodding from a friend who wouldn't take "no" for an answer, I was introduced to the world of ballroom dancing.  And with the benefit of methodical and gentle teaching (and good partners), I was pleased to discover that, not only was I capable of learning to dance, but I reveled in this new-found passion - the glory of music in motion!

As a newbie, I found it helpful, in general, to dance with more experienced dancers.  I also found, though, that experience alone did not make someone a good dance partner.  Some experienced dance partners were impatient and ungracious, becoming easily irritated and tending to blame me when I missed a cue, or resorting to strong-arming me into compliance when I did not perfectly follow a lead.  Others were a bit nicer, but finally just gave up on me.

Gratefully, I found a few who were gracious and skilled in their leadership - and willing to put up with my inexperience.  These men took on the responsibility to offer a more defined lead when I missed a cue, and embraced the perspective that a big part of what made a man a good leader was his ability adjust his lead to accommodate the ability and experience of the follower.  One such partner was a man named Joe.  Joe had a couple of years of experience, and was willing to practice new steps with me.  Dancing with Joe was fun, and in my time dancing with Joe, I learned a lot about dancing and, rather surprisingly, a lot about God - which was ironic, because Joe was not a particularly religious man.  As a matter of fact, Joe never said a word about God; but through dancing with Joe, I encountered God on the dance floor - not once, but twice.

The first time, I was thinking about how grateful I was that Joe was so patient with me, and willing to hang in there with me in spite of the times I fumbled in my steps - even at times when it took several times of doing the same thing over and over again before I finally got it right!  In that moment of reflection, it was as though God broke into my consciousness and spoke directly to me, saying, "Judy, do you really believe I'm any less gracious in the way I lead you through life than Joe is in the way he leads you through a dance?"  

These words startled me, consciously bringing to the surface some pretty deeply held fears, based in some early formative experiences I'd had with authority figures while growing up.  And although everything I'd been taught told me that God was loving and patient, when confronted, I could no longer hide from the fact that I really did fear that God was more like those other dance partners - impatient and ungracious, becoming easily irritated and tending to blame me when I missed a cue, or resorting to strong-arming me into compliance when I did not perfectly follow His lead.  Gratefully, instead of shame and condemnation, God's gentle and loving confrontation brought comfort, and in stunned silence, eyes brimming with tears, those long held fears lost their grip on my heart.

The second time I encountered God on the dance floor was when Joe said he wanted to try to lead me through some new steps he'd learned in a class.  Not wanting to be a screw-up, I concentrated intently on every nuance of Joe's movement and did my best to read his cues and second-guess exactly what I thought he wanted me to do . . . and it was kind of a disaster.  Being the gracious man he was, instead of berating me, Joe simply said, "Let's try that again, and this time I want you not to try so hard.  Just relax and follow.  I don't expect you to know how to do something you've never done before.  Don't try to anticipate what you think I'll want you to do next, because when you anticipate, you end up doing something weird.  Just relax and follow, and things should turn out just fine."  And so I did.  And he was right.  And God said, "Ditto."

Yep.  In dancing with Joe, God met me on the dance floor, and through those moments, God taught me more powerfully and effectively about the graciousness of His leadership than through the best sermon I've ever heard on the topic, before or since.