A Time for Dancing

We can only walk in one direction at a time.  We can choose to go forward or turn around to what is behind us.  We can even try walking forward while looking over our shoulder which is mostly about not going forward.  Everyone of us comes to times in our life when we are faced with the inner chaos of such indecision.  It may come after a marriage falls into pieces.  It may come at the death of a child, or a parent, or a spouse, or, perhaps, even with a doctor's diagnosis which threatens to diminish the years of our life.  Some find themselves at such a place when a job is lost, or when some much worked for dream is shattered.   

If we have not come to a moment of having to choose between holding to an impossible to hold past or a future overflowing with the unknown and the uncertain, it can only be said that such a moment will surely come.  Turning loose of what is behind is one of the hardest things in life that we do.  It is where we have security.  It is where life seemed to make sense.  It was where we experienced belonging.  We knew who we were and where we were going.  It is hard to turn this loose even when we know in the depths of our inner being that it is no longer ours to hold.  

A singer named Lee Ann Womack sings a song which contains the words, "When you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance."  After moments in our life which shake us to our core, looking back instead of forward is like sitting out the dance.  To dare to dance when everything within us wants to reclaim the past means that we are choosing not to sit out the rest of our life.  There is an often quoted verse in Jeremiah 29:11 which speaks of God having a plan for us.  It is not just any plan.  It is not plan B.  It is God's plan "to give you a future with hope."  By faith walk into it.  "Don't sit out the rest of your life.  Dance."