cha cha cha...cha cha cha...shake your... ok. that's where it ends!

The Cha Cha. Salsa. Waltz. Tango. SWING and all that other good stuff. I love to dance! Yesterday I went to Ted Motika's (eesh, I dunno) dance studio in the Exchange. It was freakin' fun! I haven't danced, besides during worship at church, in what seems like forever! I took a 4 week (6 week?) swing class in the fall of grade 12 and had such a good time! I realize that part of me "comes alive", if you will, when I dance. I may not be the best dancer, and sometimes I do have two left feet - watch out boys!!, but I do love it!!!

Being Menno and all, it's taken a while to get used to the idea and actually partake in anything that involves moving the hips. In Steinbach the motto is "dancing is bad and leads to sex". If you don't want to ruin your reputation or be shunned - don't dance! If you don't want to have a baby and be faced with the shame of teen pregnancy - don't dance! If you are attending church and have been caught dancing the previous night - you will be scowled at and inadvertantly ignored. Now, in all seriousness, do know that I am blowing this way out of proportion! I find it hilarious, most of the time, that some people in my home town community actually believe this and that others blatantly and openly mock this mind set (as un-funny as it sounds).

However, a part of me really wishes that people would see the beauty in dance. Dance in this generation has become twisted, perverse, full of explicit sexual garbage and usually affiliated with some sort of inebriation, usually the alcohol type. Question: What would happen if the world saw dance, in it's true form, as worship to our Saviour, completely inebriated by His love! That would be beautiful. I'm sure there would still be many-a-skeptic but what an example of true worship that would be! I would love to be part of being an example/teaching/or however else God would want it to look/ to my generation about purity in dance. I really don't know how that would look or what it means but I know I have a heart for my generation and a heart for purity! God would you direct me, guide me, teach me and change me that I would be willing and ready to go where you lead! Lord, I want to be a part in revealing your mysterious and amazing love to people in my generation! I only want Your will! Teach me what it means to not only dance for you, but with you! I also pray for even more freedom in dance and expression for both men and women, the young and the old, in my church, country and all over globe. Raise us up to be a generation that seeks after Your face alone, no matter what that looks like. I will be a fool for you, Jesus, if that's what You ask. You don't call me foolish. You call me lovely. Amen.

(so get out there and shake your booty for Jesus!)