(Swing) Dancing with God

I've taken up swing dancing since coming to Montana.

Dancing does not come easily to me. I'm not, as my brother Jarred would put it, "loosey goosey." I really like it, but my lack of skill tends to make me self-conscious. The first night I showed up and nervously explained to each of my partners that I'd never done it before. Luckily for me, most of them took pity on me and kept things relatively simple. Well, most of them.

As one guy (who was quite a good dancer) pulled me out onto the floor, I tried to explain my lack of skill. "That's okay," he said. "Just hold onto my hands and go where I move you." So I did. I stopped trying to figure out what I was doing. I stopped worrying about whether I was doing anything right. I just held onto his hands and let him lead. And as we spun around the room, I must admit: I couldn't stop smiling.

I've often heard that faith is like a dance with God-we may mess up, step on His feet, or try to move some other direction, but at the end of the dance He's going to get you where you need to go. It's always been hard for me to understand that. Yet while dancing on Friday it made so much more sense.

Dancing does not come easily to me, and neither does faith. I mess up a lot in both. Sometimes I turn the wrong way. Sometimes I drop my partner's hand, step on his feet, or have no idea what he's doing.  No matter how often I mess up, though, he's always there holding out his hand, ready to lead me through the next turn. It's much more fun when I let him, when I stop trying to dance on my own.

My faith is the same. I make mistakes a lot. Sometimes I'm angry and step on God's feet. Sometimes I think He's going to turn me one way, but instead He chooses another. Sometimes I let go of His hand. I'm reminded tonight, though, that patient though my swing dancing partners may be, God is even more so. He's always holding out His hand to me when I drop it, when I've lost it, when I'm going through even the most mundane of steps. He's there. And though I may not understand His steps and they may not seem to lead where I want, I've learned something, too: The dance is much better when I let Him lead.

So tonight, hard though it may be, I'm going to just hold on to God's hands and go where He moves me.

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