Daring to Dance with God

Stepping into God's Embrace

By Jeff Walling
Foreword by Max Lucado Howard Publishing, $14.95

ISBN 1878990551

Learning to LET GO

Review by Karen Hiner

If you believe that to be joyful always means "grin and bear it till Jesus comes," Jeff Walling wants to challenge your thinking. In Daring to Dance with God, Walling suggests that God desires to teach you a joyous ballet to replace your religious routine.

The author empathizes with you if the dancing metaphor makes you uncomfortable. He grew up in a loving but stern parsonage where dancing was forbidden, although he didn't know it until his third-grade teacher introduced the class to square dancing as part of a study of folk music. The teacher acknowledged the note his parents sent, but wisely helped him save face.

Fortunately, her plan was acceptable to his parents, but Walling began to develop the strong conviction that "real Christians don't dance. . . or goof off. Or laugh in church."

Years later, he was surprised to read in the Bible that David danced before the Lord (2 Sam. 6:13-15), and found other references to dancing as a way to demonstrate one's delight in God. Walling says, "God invites us into intimacy. . . . He asks not that we stay at arm's length; rather he pulls us tight, taking us for the dance of a lifetime."

However, you will not find a chapter titled, "How to Get Happy Fast." The freedom to dance comes only through the power of God's Spirit, and only God can set the tempo.

Daring to Dance with God is in three sections. The first explains five basic celestial dance steps, including "Giving Up Yesterday's Baggage" and "Dancing on Thin Air." These five dance steps are for all Christians, but especially for those who long for, but have never experienced, a deep relationship with God.

Section two prescribes treatments for five spiritual diseases that hinder a joyous dance with God. These include "Marthaplexy" ("Can't dance with my apron on") and "Nazaritis-Coma of the Soul" ("Too Bored to Bop").

In the third section of the book, Walling shows us how to dance even when circumstances make it seem impossible to find joy. When dealing with shame, or facing tough times, and even death, we are safe in God's embrace.

Walling has been a minister for 20 years, and is a popular speaker at Christian conferences around the world. In Daring to Dance with God, he encourages the reader to accept the invitation to "venture out onto the dance floor and into God's arms.

Lucado on what it means to dance

Max Lucado, writing the foreword to Daring to Dance with God, suggests that as you read, "you may sense your foot tapping to the music." Here is Lucado's favorite selection:

And what is it like to dance with God?
Dancing with God is allowing him to take our breath away as he whirls us through the dark and light places that life leads us. It is relaxing into his embrace and trusting fully in his strong arms. It is releasing the power of the Spirit within us to give us joy beyond measure. It is reveling in the unexpected and celebrating the divine surprise that is each new day. It is rejoicing out loud at the grace and beauty God provides and ignoring the calls of the crowd to sit down and quit running.

But above all else, dancing with God is learning to let go.

Karen Hiner is a freelance editor and reviewer from Spokane, WA.