One of my favorites memories is when I was in college. I had just finished up my freshman year and was home for the summer…

One important thing to know…I love to dance. I did ballet for many, many years and put my parents through so many Nutcracker performances that they probably cringe when they hear Tchaikovsky. In high school, my friends and I would go swing dancing and in college I learned to shag (SC’s state dance, in case you didn’t know) and loved going to Jillian’s on Thursdays.

…Well, while home, I missed my Thursday nights and decided to go with a few friends back to our high school dance hangout. What a fun night we had!! Since it was summer, so many people were there celebrating being on break for the summer. The vibe was hopping! And then came the beginning tunes of the song “Shout!” Everyone got excited and grabbed a partner to take to the dance floor.

I was just standing there enjoying the excitement when a handsome, tall guy with tasteful facial hair, a plaid shirt, and a John Deere hat came and asked me to dance. Of course, I said yes!! 

Oh what fun we had! He was such a good dancer!! And what I loved most about dancing with him was that he was a good leader. There is nothing better than dancing with someone who knows what they’re doing and loves doing it! He swung me around, twirling til I felt I was floating, doing crazy lifts and such….sigh….he was probably the best person I have ever danced with, and I’ve danced with some good partners. Sadly, it was like a dream…we didn’t know each other’s names and never saw each other again, but I will always remember that dance :)

So what took me down memory lane…..

A reading from a blog by the pastor at Mitchell Rd Presbyterian, Andy Lewis. I didn’t realize he was doing a post each day for Advent and was catching up on it and I loved what he wrote for the first day… 

“…there is a beautiful dance of delight (Zeph. 3:17: The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing).  It is important to recognize that God isn’t just appeased but now because of Christ actually delights in us.  And as we realize his delight in us we will be able to delight in him.  He is the leader of this dance but it is so good to be led.  To realize that God actually delights in us is hard to imagine, accept and believe.  This is precisely because there is nothing in the world like the love of God to compare it with.  There can’t be a similar comparison because it deals with God. And God, by definition, can’t have equals and still be God. But if we give ourselves over to being led in love by Christ we will find rest for our souls and breath for our songs.”

Often, I don’t give God full lead. As we dance to the song of my life, I tend to be prideful and want to determine the steps and moves that I make, and if God really were my dance partner, I would be dragging Him all over the dance floor. But as Andy said, God delights in us, thanks to Christ’s sacrifice, and He wants to dance with us, to lead us. And just like the guy that I danced with, when we let God take control and lead us, what joy we can have. As Andy said at the end, “we will find rest for our souls and breath for our songs.” It’s hard to give the lead to someone that doesn’t know what they’re doing and falters their steps, but that isn’t the case with our Lord. He never falters, He is steadfast and knows better than us the steps we need to take in this dance of life and the joy that can come with it.

Who is leading on the dance floor of your life??