Lynn Dove's Journey Thoughts

Confession time…again…I’m a Baptist and I like to dance!  Whew…just had to get that off my chest.  Now that I’ve admitted to it I need to add one more little comment…although I love to dance I don’t dance all that well.

One of my favorite shows on T.V. is “Dancing With the Stars”.  I love to watch “non-dancers”, like myself, learn how to dance from professional dancers.  Admittedly we only get to see the polished performance and flashbacks of practices, but still they make it look so easy.  Watching from the comfort of my LazyBoy, it’s easy to be critical…as if I could dance the Paso Doble any better 🙂

Many years ago, I thought I’d sign my husband and I up to learn some ballroom dancing but he balked at the idea, so I compromised, allowing him to wear his cowboy duds (and boots) to learn how to line dance.  We went with another couple we knew and for the most part it was just a fun evening out for the four of us.  We learned how to two-step and line dance and after six weeks we were ready to try out our dancing prowess on a real dance floor.  Unfortunately the only place to kick up our heels was in the local saloon and by the time we got there, many of the clientelle were already pretty lubricated and itching for a fight rather than a dosey doe around the dance floor.  Undetoured, my husband decided we were going to at least stay for a couple of songs, promenade me around the floor and then waltz out the door before a bar room brawl ensued.  The only trouble was, when we got on the dance floor, everyone was two-stepping in the opposite direction than us.

You see, we had learned to two-step going in a clock-wise direction around the dance floor, and at this establishment they were two-stepping counter-clock wise!  After being elbowed and jostled and sworn at for acting like non-conforming dance rebels, my husband took my hand, picked up his cowboy hat and we headed home.  We’ve never line-danced since.

I’ve often thought that somewhere in Calgary there must be a place for a pair of clock-wise, two-stepping Baptists to sashay around a dance floor, but I suppose I’ll never know now.  My husband is just not ready to take the chance again, and after all these years, I’ve forgotten the basics of two-step.

A while back a new family visited our church.  It was obvious that their young children had never been in a “conservative” Baptist worship service before.  Wide eyed and smiling, when the worship team started to play, one of the little girls made her way quickly to the front of the auditorium and with wild abandon spun and twirled and danced.  She closed her eyes and raised her arms up and I started to get teary-eyed watching her.  She was dancing like no one was watching her except for One.

I remember that little girl every time I break into my dance moves alone in the comfort of my home.   I find that some of my most elaborate choreography comes about when I put on some “praise” music and my dancing becomes an act of Worship rather than just dancing for dancing sake.  God doesn’t seem to mind that I don’t know all the steps, and that having “two left feet” is an understatement especially when applied to me, He just seems to appreciate the effort!

Psalm 150 “Praise the Lord.  Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.  Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.  Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord.”