Welcome my friends to season 3 of the Determined to Dance podcast. My prayer is that you’ll be encouraged to persevere daily in our chaotic world. Today’s episode, I Can’t Dance, focuses on how fear can keep us from stepping onto the dance floor.

Show Notes: I Can’t Dance

Jeff Walling shares a story of how he went to the Senior Sock Hop as a teen. He’d grown up in a household that didn’t believe in dancing so when asked by a girl to dance, he had to admit that he didn’t know how. He left embarrassed.

He goes on to say, “I share this to assure the reader that I understand the frustration and embarrassment that can flood one’s soul when a fellow believer says, ‘Can’t you just relax and celebrate your Christianity? Can’t you just turn it all over to God and trust him? Can’t you quit worrying and start praising? … Breaking the barriers that keep us from dancing with God in celebration of life is not for the fainthearted. Criticism and pressure will soon come to bear from without and within. When our hearts aren’t warning us that our faith is just too much fun, our Christian friends will be. And the danger of losing our focus and allowing freedom in Christ to become a license for licentiousness is a constant concern. But if you’ll brave those dangers, there are cures for the maladies that keep us from dancing with the King.”

When I first started attending a new church, I noticed some people raised one or both hands during the singing part of the service. Why were they doing this? Was it okay? Biblical? I wasn’t going to unless I knew it was all right with God. During a television sermon by one of my favorite pastors, he talked about all the ways in the Bible to praise and worship God. One was raising hands. Psalm 63:4 says, “Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.” NKJV Since I knew it was all right, I started by bending my hand at the wrist where no one could really see. Fear tried to stop me right from the beginning.

Fear will try to keep you from praising and worshiping God freely. Fear will also keep you from hearing what the Father is trying to speak to your heart. A low rumbling of terror will grip your soul and before you know it, you’ll be shouting, ‘I can’t dance,’ whenever the opportunity to love, grow, and serve the people in your community arises.

Opportunities like:

Visiting the unchurched, sick, or those in a nursing home.
Being part of a community outreach to the poor or homeless.
Attending church regularly.
Helping with VBS or church camp.
Teaching Sunday School or life groups.
Ministering to the people you work with.

Fear says, ‘You can’t. Don’t even try.’ God is holding out His hand, gently beseeching you to step out onto the dance floor of life. While opportunities like those above can make us uncomfortable and fearful, they will build our faith and in the long run, we receive more than we give.

In II Corinthians 9:6-8, the Word says: “But this I say: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

We reap what we sow. If we step out, letting cheerfulness outweigh the fear, God says He’ll give us an abundance of grace for every good work. Every single one. We need faith and a good attitude. God can take the little we have to offer and make much from it.

At the age of 12, Mother Teresa felt the call of God on her life to be a missionary. I’m sure she had no idea that accepting this call would change the world, especially India. She began by teaching at a Catholic school in India and at the age of 38 felt led to minister to the poorest of the poor without any financial backing.