Dance Like a Child — Answering The Call - A Redeeming The Time Blog

Dance Like a Child

By Grant Gaines

One of the greatest compliments you can give someone is to say that they are exactly the same person no matter the circumstances. It doesn’t matter if they are alone in their home, in the middle of Times Square during a New Year’s Eve celebration, with their spouse of 30+ years, or with the President of the United States of America, that person will not waiver in who they are.

Of all the “people” I’ve know in my entire lifetime, there’s one friend that was able to embody this unwavering character better than anyone I’ve ever known. His name is Maverick. Maverick was my childhood dog that gave my family more memories, laughs, and headaches than we care to count. But this was the beautiful thing about Mav-he didn’t care who you were-you could be my friend, a family member, a Girl Scout selling cookies at the door, a construction worker, a burglar, the governor of Texas, or Jesus Christ Himself, Mav was going to act the exact same around you regardless of who you were.

Sure, he would bark until his vocal cords would go horse if you were a stranger standing outside our window, but the second you stepped into our house and he saw that my family welcomed that particular person, Mav loved you. He would try to jump up to give you a “hug,” he would wag his giant tail with velocity of a F6 tornado, and he would joyfully plop himself right next to your leg so he would be conveniently positioned just in case you wanted to reach down your hand to pet him.

Maverick didn’t care about you position at work, how big or small your bank account was, the color of your skin, what your favorite sports team was, or what church you went to, he was going to be the same Maverick to you as he would be to me. That was just the way Mav rolled.

I know this sounds like I am just babbling on and on about my beloved dog but you have to trust me, I’m going somewhere with this! The reason Maverick was able to be himself no matter who his audience was is because he was completely comfortable and confident. He never had the thought cross his mind, “I wonder if these people will think I’m weird if I sniff their rear-ends?” He just did it anyways. He never worried about people not liking him or ignoring him because he knew he was completely loved.

We’re not too different from Maverick, are we? Thankfully we do not droll quite as much and hopefully you don’t panic quite as much as he did when someone was swimming in the pool, but just like good ol’ Mav, when we feel totally loved, we are authentically ourselves.

Think about the way you act when you are around your spouse, family, or best friends. You probably act a little different than you do when you’re around your boss, don’t you? Why? Because you don’t fear your family’s love for you disappearing if you make a mistake or act a little too goofy. When you know you’re loved, you act genuinely like yourself.

That’s what God tells us in 1 John 4:18 (NIV)-“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Do you know what the opposite of love is? For the majority of my life I’ve always assumed the opposite of love was hate. It seemed to make perfect sense to me-if you don’t love someone, you probably hate someone. But the verse we just looked at tells us the opposite of love is not hated, but fear.

This means that when we are fearful it’s because we don’t feel loved. Of course I’m not talking about spooky, haunted house, scary-movie-fear but rather true, deep fears and insecurities that surround us every day. When we don’t feel loved, we respond in fear which causes us to become someone other than who God created us to truly be.

This is why Ephesians 5:1-2 (NIV) instructs us to, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Jesus loved us and gave Himself up for us….”

If I were to ask you to get up in front of a giant crowd that you didn’t know and dance by yourself, you probably would be pretty reserved, wouldn’t you? But if a put his 3 year old kid up on that exact same stage and told him to dance, he would be dancing his little heart out without a care in the world who was watching or what he looked like because he knew his dad was there and nothing he could ever do could make his dad disown them. No wonder Jesus tells us to have a child-like faith (Matthew 18:3)!

I think we could learn a lot from Maverick and that hypothetical little kid dancing on a stage. As we grow older we move away from that fearlessness and authenticity that we had as children and begin to become more reserved and shy when we’re uncomfortable. We learn so much information yet forget about the ever faithful love of our heavenly Father. We read more of the Bible as we age and yet miss the message that God is so desperately trying to get across in every single verse and story that we read-“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1, NIV).

You are a dearly loved child of God. Nothing you can do-good or bad-could make Him love you more or less. Nothing you could do could ever cause Him to disown you or give up on you (Ephesians 1:13). He loves you not because of how awesome you are or what you can do for Him but rather because of His grace and love (Ephesians 2:8-9).

How should you respond to such indescribable, unfathomable love? Be yourself. Be who He created you to be. Don’t live in a shell of fear. Don’t deny the world the “you” that God designed you to be. Live your life in every situation-regardless of who you’re with or what you’re doing with a child-like faith in your Father’s unfailing, never-ending, unperishable love. This love leads us into a freedom to be ourselves which is one of the greatest gifts anyone could ever give us.

Are you living in love or in fear?

“…I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”
-Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)