USGN Article – January 2005
Written by Terry Franklin

"Dancing Into A New Year”

“Dancing lessons?” I said. “I grew up Baptist – we don’t DO dancing.” The young voice on the other end of the phone is a friend of our family’s. She is currently employed by a local dance club. “Oh, you’ll both love it!” she insisted, with the persuasion that is sure to lead to a million-dollar seller in the Real Estate business.

“There will be plenty of food; your wife will love it, and it’s only $15 per couple,” she continued. The “plenty of food” part rang in my ear… and 15 bucks….well, why not?

Barbi grew up pretty conservative (her dad was once a professor at Bob Jones University, a fairly straight-laced place) but she has always loved dancing – not the disco, barroom type, but ball-room dancing, yeah! The problem is that her husband has not been a very willing participant. I am terrible at it. In fact, I’ve been glad I didn’t have daughters, so that I wouldn’t have to do that obligatory dance that we’ve all seen father’s stumble through at wedding receptions.

So, on cruise ships, at weddings, at formal functions….I have always bowed out and found some other men of like mind who wanted to have intimate, feeling-oriented conversation about things like SEC college football or fishing.

But, alas, this is not the way to keep the Mrs. happy.

So, what did my $15 get me? Well, for one, it proved that I really am a disaster when it comes to dancing. But it taught me a few lessons that apply to the new year:

THINGS GO BETTER WHEN YOU RELAX
At first, the harder I tried, the worse I did! The band was playing “Moon River” but I looked like one of these 80’s punk rock bands doing the robot! But when I just eased up and enjoyed the moment, everything went better.

SOMEONE HAS TO LEAD
After stepping all over Barbi’s feet for a few minutes, the instructor asked if he could dance with Barbi. It kind of ticked me off at how well she did. They looked like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire! The difference was – he knew how to lead. If most of us would stop trying to tell God how to “dance,” our lives would go a whole lot smoother. Believe me, He knows how to lead.

MAKING SOMEONE ELSE HAPPY FEELS GOOD
So there we were – finding our way during a waltz into the middle of the ballroom, like novice roller-skaters trying to keep from being run over. We were laughing; she was smiling, and I was… enjoying being with her. Gang, let’s dance our way happy into the New Year!
 

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