To Dance or Not To Dance

That is the question.

Every week, I have the honor of working with beautiful girls from our neighborhood in a dance ministry. They love to dance, and they are awesome dancers. But every week, we have to almost fight them to get them to dance. Sometimes at dance, I want to leave before we even begin. They have all the attitude in the world sometimes, and I just want to turn around and walk out the door. But somehow, by the end of dance, I'm impressed, proud, and excited about how they've pushed through and danced.

I've always danced ever since I was a little girl. Even before my first lessons, I was always putting on some crazy outfit and doing my Madonna and Michael Jackson moves. Don't laugh, you know you did it, too. But as I got older, it became harder to let go of my insecurities, and harder to feel free to just dance. I would hold back, even in dance class with my friends, afraid that I would look stupid, or just not as good as the other girls. Something that my Mom would always tell me was to never stop dancing. She knew that in my hard of hearts it was who I was.

There was a period of time when I gave it up. I thought that my dancing days were over, and just a memory from the past. Something that I used to be, but no longer really who I was. I was wrong.

You know that song, "I hope you dance"? I loved that song from the first time I heard it. Sure it's a little cheesy, but the reason why I love it, is because it is hard to be that free. Even when you long to be free. It's hard to let down your guard and allow yourself to be vulnerable enough in front of other people to dance. Or hope. Or wonder. Or believe. Especially when you know how cruel the world can be at times. And these girls know how cruel the world can be.

This past weekend, our girls danced in front of a lot of people, and performed two different pieces that are hard to do. Not just step wise, but emotionally hard. They feel the brokenness of their own lives, and sometimes that scares them. Sometimes they don't want to think about the pain that they have had to overcome. And they sometimes don't want to dance. But deep down, they're dying to. Deep down, what they want is to be so free that they could dance with the world watching, and not have a care in the world. And so they push through, and they dance. And, they amaze me. They stand in the strength of their God, and dance.