Oh, I feel like dancing...

Last week, I started teaching my class a new worship song. I like to have a variety of songs, the more "traditional" Bible songs mixed with "modern" worship. I'd been thinking about I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, but wasn't sure how they'd like it. In the end, I picked that song as well as another more up-beat song, Joy. The chorus is simple and they quickly picked it up, but then there's the bridge (?) that they're not quite used to yet:

Oh, I feel like dancing
It's foolishness I know
But when the world sees the light
They will dance with joy like we're dancing now

This verse always reminds me of a story I heard a few years ago from a kids worship leader. If I remember it correctly, he was practicing this song and he saw his daughter standing behind him from the reflection of a mirror. She asked him about the dancing part and what foolishness meant. So he told her and she seemed kind of confused. What's silly about dancing because of God's love?

He thought about it and told her it's not silly to dance. She walked away and he resumed his playing. This time when he got to the bridge he changed the lyrics,

Oh, I feel like dancing
It's not foolishness I know
But when the world sees the light
They will dance with joy like we're dancing now

He looked up and saw her reflection once again in the mirror. She was dancing. Since then, every time I hear this song that is what I think of. Why sing that it's foolishness to dance because of God's love? It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

Doesn't this say something about how reserved we are in our worship? Should we think (or even) sing that's its foolish to praise the Lord by dancing? I don't think so. I think we should be less inhibited in our worship. This is what I'm going to do. Next week, I'm changing the lyrics...

Oh, I feel like dancing
It's not foolishness, I know
But when the world sees the light
They will dance with joy like we're dancing now