I hopped and flopped around

Tonight was spent in running shorts, tennis shoes, in the dark, with the music, under a disco ball.  In short: I had my first zumba experience.  If you’re not familiar with zumba, it is a workout class that involves dancing (or maybe a better word would be flailing), loud music, laughter, and plenty of sweat. 

It is fair to say I made a complete fool of myself.  I am not a dancer by nature, and grace often evades me.  My goal tonight: keep moving.  And I did keep moving for the duration of the fun-filled hour.  It was a blast.  I had no inhibitions (the lights were off), I admit I enjoyed the loud music, and I had the perfect example of how to “zumba” in front of me the whole time (the instructor stands under a light on a stage in front of the class). 

As I hopped and flopped around, I couldn’t help but see how this whole thing was so much like our lives as Christians.

The instructor didn’t care that I wasn’t doing all the steps right, she didn’t call me out for turning the wrong way, or for jumping to the wrong side.  All she wanted was for us to try, to keep moving.  She wanted us to attempt to imitate her even though she was well aware the bunch of us had little hope for doing so with any sense of perfection.  “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children” (Ephesians 5:1).  God knows we cannot attain the perfection he is, but we are calls us to live our lives as an attempt to follow his example. 

In my mind, I imagined this zumba class as a room full of 20-something women, all on the “fitter” side of life.  However, this crowd consisted of women, men, young people, middle-aged people, older people, fit people, less-fit people, energetic people, and even some lethargic people.  We all flopped around together and I found a sense of comfort as I gazed upon my peers who looked just as ridiculous as I did.  We were in this together.  “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).  The man to my left did not get angry when I hopped right into his personal space, but we laughed and carried on.  As we fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, do not be easily angered, but treat each other with love. 

As the hour neared its end, the instructor did the unthinkable: she dared to come down off the stage and hop around with us on the gym floor.  She hopped through the crowd (with much more grace than any of us could muster), encouraged us, and even offered high-fives.  She dared to dance and dwell among us, even though the probability of us flopping into her was likely.  “[Christ], who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6-7).  God came off his stage to dwell among us.  If I was so excited to get a high-five from some lady I have never met before, how much greater is it to think that God himself came to earth to die for me? 

That pretty much sums up the Christian life: Christ saved us, we aim to imitate Christ, and we are given the family of Christ to encourage us and live life with.  Life is not promised to be easy for the Christian (and zumba was by no means easy), but it can be enjoyable, exciting, and even rewarding (like the feeling I had after completing my first zumba endeavor).  So even if you flop your way through life, never give up.  Life is good.