"Too left" feet…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about summing up your life in six words and I listed a couple of my own attempts. Here’s another one: “Baptist dilemma: loved music, couldn’t dance.” I grew up in a denomination which had the idea that dancing was sinful. It was ingrained in me so well that once, when I danced at an eighth-grade graduation party, I went home and confessed to my parents what I’d done.
Now, of course, dancing seems pretty innocent, but I still feel awkward and clumsy when I do it — which is maybe once every couple of years. I asked my mom if she danced when she was in high school. She said no. My dad, however, did kick up his heels a few times in his youth. After he “got the call” from God to enter the ministry, he went to a dance and a girl asked him if it was true…was he really going to be a preacher? When he said yes, she asked, “Then what are you doing here?” His jitterbugging days were over.
My mom told me that once, after we kids were grown, she and my dad were home alone and she said, “Why don’t we just dance right here?” Daddy just laughed. But I think Mom really wished they could drop those old chains and hold each other close and sway to the music.
My dad is gone now, and my mom uses a walker to get around. But a few years ago, at the wedding reception for one of their grandchildren, something kind of wonderful happened. The DJ began playing that “chicken dance” song…and for the first time in our lives, my entire family got out on the floor—my mom and dad included—and danced around in a circle. In his final years, my dad had softened. He cared less about the do’s and dont’s of his denominational upbringing and he cared more about…caring more. If he had to do it all over again, I think he would have waltzed my mom around the living room with no problem. See, God never said not to dance; some preacher came up with that, one of those preachers who was more committed to taking joy out of the world than putting joy into it.
You can be chicken to dance…or you can dance like a chicken. One makes you feel self-righteous; the other makes you feel free, happy and alive. Which do you think God prefers?