To Dance

Dance...the word sparkles in my mind and twinkles in my eyes...Dance.
Some words are visual in their very sound and dance is one of them. My idea of dance is a rhythmic movement in response to inner or outer music. A release of emotion that requires no words...that is a glorious truth that makes me smile for I am by my own admission a lover of words. There used to be a running joke in my family that I made up words...and sometimes I did; but it was never in a premeditated way, rather it was a on the spot response to an idea or experience.
All of us have non-verbal ways of expressing ourselves...I've had a babyhood tick of ringing my hands...one I suppressed as I got older.
I suppose you realize by now that I am intrigued by dancing...and as those who know me know...intrigued is all it is...I'm so for real! I've never taken a dance class and am not exactly the most graceful creature around. But part of my fascination with dancing is the heated response one get to the topic. It is definitely not a causal conversation starter.
Maybe that is why I've chosen it as a vehicle to share something. Most of my life I've looked at the world as the devil's kingdom. But while its tragically true that this unique planet is the devil's playground. He hijacked it only after my Creator Lord designed and set it in motion. The enemy is regulated to disarray, distorting and destruction. To extinction or extremes is his motto. And though he has limited power to miraculously glitter and glamour his death traps, they are all an appeal to instincts that beckon to the glory of God's original purpose. Dancing, in my dictionary, is no exception.
I was created to be a beautiful, graceful, harmonious, intimate creature...sin leaves me ugly, awkward, at odds, and relationally broken. No wonder I have a pull to an art that graces me with a promise of the first! That said I will agree that dancing has been for the most part successfully hijacked. It is now commonly viewed, at least within conservative Christian communities, as a practice of the flesh and a sinful pass time. One preacher I recently heard commented on the whole topic with a dismissive "it is an advertisement of your sexual prowess". If dancing is an expression of emotion--then it can be good or bad; there can be a time for it to be and time for it to be not. Interestingly enough that is exactly what Ecclesiastes 3:4 seems to be saying. There is "A time to mourn and a time to dance."
I've come to at least one conclusion while writing this. The devil doesn't deserve the credit of creating dancing. It is not his tool exclusively. Now the ramifications of what I'm saying I've still to flesh out...does that annoy you? I am being honest though...
In order to set some of your hearts at ease, I will say that because of some of my other conviction you won't find me studiously dancing away under the hand of a master dancer...though that fantasy has crossed my mind...but neither will you hear me condemning the whole concept as an art bred in the devil's workshop.
I am becoming more and more all about reclaiming the Lord's design. The devil is a liar and I don't want to assist his propaganda campaign. If we approached things in this light don't you think we'd do a better job of presenting truth as the beautiful thing that it is?