043: Just DANCE!

March 30, 2010
Romans 8

Do you ever feel like dancing? Not because you have to, or even because you’re in an environment to do so, but just because? Sometimes certain songs do that for me. Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister” currently makes me want to just jump up and start flapping around the room. Well, actually, I’m a better dancer than that, but you get the idea.

Why do we get so caught up in our inhibitions? I had a great talk with a guy named Cho at the bar on Saturday night, and he was quite open and honest with his feelings on Christians and Christianity, and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that he’d ingested a lot of alcohol and was feeling quite free to say whatever he wanted to say. I like that about people who have been drinking – I think perhaps their actions are perhaps more honest and forthright than those of us who are sober and stiff all the time.

But music… music sometimes can have a similar affect as alcohol maybe… I mean, it’s just a theory, but I don’t USUALLY just have random dance parties in my living room without some music going, but once I crank up a good tune that makes my “heart light and feet free” (in the paraphrased words of Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing), well, that’s another case… I’m trying rub it off on my family too… My little brother is pretty anti anything that might make him look silly, but my little sister is getting into it (YES! Success!!)

I was thinking about this earlier, while my feet were making little cha-cha moves across the kitchen floor, and I don’t understand why we don’t dance more. I mean, as a society. It’s good for us! It’s exercise, it makes our brain work, it can make us laugh, which is really healthy for us, and it just FEELS good on top of all that! Particularly as Christians, I think we should dance more, because we have SO MUCH to be joyful about!

Sometimes when I dance I start to feel happier after I get started. I start to FEEL more joy. One thing that is clear in the Bible is that we aren’t supposed to just be joyful and rejoice when we FEEL joy, it’s a command to be joyful… but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with feeling joy and even doing things that stimulate those feelings of joy so that we can obey the command to be joyful.

Seriously? When I really stop to think about how EXTRAVIGANTLY God loves me – us – and how faithful He is to us, and how beautiful and fun He has created life and the world to be, I think it’s almost criminal to NOT allow our hearts to be joyful, and even express that joy through dancing if we so desire!

So here’s the challenge – go find a couple songs that make your heart feel like breakin’ out of your somber tennis shoes or confining high heels, take off your socks, and crank the music so you can dance around the house… free of shame… free of feeling like a dork… free of inhibitions. Just DANCE. And rejoice in Jesus while you’re at it!