Epworth United Methodist Student Ministries

Students With A Task  

Service Worship Accountability Teamwork

Allison ----

        Following Jesus is like a Solo Dance !

When I was younger, I was anything but a girly girl. I was what you would call a tom boy. I was doomed to be a tom boy from the very beginning, I had no choice.

            In the first few weeks from being brought home from the hospital after being born, my brother had dressed me up in a cabbage patch Ohio State football uniform and who knows what other boy outfits. From the age of three to about eight, I played just about every sport available such as Basketball, Tball, Volleyball, Softball and Soccer. I would have much rather climbed trees with my brother than gone shopping with my mom. My brother always tried to get me to play with his toy guns rather than playing with Barbie dolls, and for the most part I did.

            I still don’t know how I got into it, but in second grade I started dancing. Dancing quickly consumed my life. Since I danced so much I had to drop some of the sports I was playing. First to go was volleyball and soccer. In the seventh grade when try out for Basketball came around at my junior high I had to decide what I wanted to do… dance or play basketball. I picked what I loved to do, what my passion was for—dancing. So for me, FOLLOWING JESUS IS LIKE… A SOLO DANCE.

            There are times in your life that you may think things are just too hard and you don’t understand why God is making your life so difficult but this is the same in dance but instead of God, it’s your choreographer. I know, I know God and a choreographer should not be compared to one another but think about it, they both push you to the best you can be.

            For those of you who don’t know too much about dance, a good choreographer is key to the success of a dancer.  A good choreographer is one who works with the dancer and knows the dancers ability along with knowing how far they can push them to the limits. A choreographer to a dancer becomes almost like a friend. But for a dancer and a choreographer to have a good relationship, the dancer has to trust and believe in the choreographer ideas and sometimes crazy thoughts. In dance you sometimes have to do movements that feels awkward or maybe even funny looking and sometimes you have to do jumps and turns that you may think are impossible, but you have to believe in and trust your choreographer that they will not make you look silly or tell you to do something that they know you can’t do. I know there have been plenty of times I question what my choreographer is telling me to do and every time they tell me to just trust them and that it will look great. There has also been times that I get so mad at my choreographer because she is pushing me too hard; sometimes I just want things to be easy or easier.

            Dancing is a lot like life. In life you have your high points, low points, your leaps and turns, your runs and pauses, your jumps and falls, just like you do in dance. In dance you can’t really think about what you’re doing because you will sometimes pysch yourself out and get scared just like you do in life. Think about it, knowing the next step you’re supposed to take is to throw yourself to the floor, who would honestly ever want to put their body through so much pain… no one your right. But if you don’t think about what’s coming next and just live in the moment, life can be so much better. Life can be difficult too, don’t get me wrong, your life can turn upside down so quickly without you even realizing what has happened and then again it can turn right back around to be the best time in your life. You can have high points and low points all in one day. Every single day, there are always things that you have to hurdle or leap over or things you just want to run away from or even times you wish you could freeze or pause, because everything seems to be perfect. Throughout life there are times that you just have to take slowly and work through just like in a dance. If you want that dream job, or to get into that dream school or even to hit that triple pirouette, you gotta work for it, you can’t expect it to be handed to you. Nothing important to you is ever easy to accomplish, but always feels amazing once you get it.

            Now you may be wondering where God is fitting into all this dance and life talk, but really God is in the middle of it all. Let me repeat that – God is in the middle of this and in the middle of US!               You see everything I said about a choreographer is what God is too. For you to have a good relationship with God, you have to trust and believe in him that he will not give you anything he knows you can’t handle. Sometimes God pushes you so much that you might get mad at him, but God isn’t trying to hurt you, but only help you be the best he knows you can be. God wants each of us to LIVE our life to the fullest.  We are only given one life to live, so why not take full advantage of everything that crosses our path. In life there are no dress rehearsals, this is it! A choreographer picks out the music you are going to dance too, just like God makes the outline for your life. God has given each of us special gifts and music in our life. You can either accept the path God has chosen for you or go the other way. The path God has for you or the dance moves the choreographer has planned for you are much better and much more fun than the other path that you make for yourself. Just like in a dance with your choreographer, God is always there for you. To pick you up when you fall, to lift you over struggles you may face and to help you balance all that is handed to you.

            In the scripture Josh read for us, Romans 8:38-39 we are told that God will always be there for you and he will never give up on you. This is a great comfort for me. God is always there for you—he will NEVER give up on you!

            So, what tune are you going to dance to?

            For me—I’m going to dance with God!