Hold your fire. Let me speak first.

I never danced as a child. I'd like to say it was because I was so holy. But I was terrified of girls. Back in those days, boys only danced with girls, you know. But I didn't even do that. Scared me.

Then I came under the power of the church. In a good way. I have no regrets about this. They explained to me, as my parents never could, the things that can happen on a dance floor. They showed me some pure logic, and the Word. I mean, why would two people of opposite gender get that close together, at an age that is more explosive than a battlefront?

Girls never quite got it in those days. Couldn't understand the guy mentality. The romance they understood, but not the hormonal stuff that can lead a couple down a wrong path.

But I got it. And backed up by a lot of natural shyness, I got past those high school years un-scathed. Well, there was the Bermuda Ball, when I got all my courage up to ask Sheri to go with me, then sat out every dance but one. That one only verified that I was a normal guy, but it scared me enough to stay away from this fire forever.

College was Bible Seminary. No dances there. So I drifted into adulthood, marriage and beyond, never having tasted this forbidden fruit.

Then one day dancing showed up in a church I was visiting. Oh my. Not in church. It happened several times, several places, actually, and I was confronted with myself again. This wasn't McKinley High School. These folks were truly worshiping God in the dance. Not performing, though I've seen a bunch of that too, but just carrying on freely while most of us were singing and trying to pay attention.

Old religious Bob said, "Out of order!"

The answer has come back often, "Whose order?"

Who said we can't dance in church? Miriam and David would have been out of place, I guess, in most churches. We assume that it's those "other" folks who dance, right, those "heretical" people who believe in not only dancing but a whole lot more... And like me hiding behind shyness, these frigidairian types hide behind order and law and rules and...

But why? Ever praised Him in the dance? I mean, on your own? Maybe you don't think it's cool in church, but isn't it cool at all?The full body mind and soul given over to praise? What could be bad about that?

"No New Testament Scripture tells me I have to!" Yeah, but the NT is pretty quiet about the tithe, Sunday School, and probably a whole lot more. And besides, do you have to be told you HAVE to do something? Isn't love a little more creative than that?