boogie wonderland

I took Matthew, Allison, and BFF Elizabeth to the skating rink after church yesterday. My arms hurt worse than my legs because I had to hold Matthew up to keep him from falling and pulling me down with him. As always it was a great trip down memory lane. Some of my greatest elementary and junior high school memories were at Red Wing Rollerway in North Augusta. Those were the days when the most important decision I had to make was whether to go skating on Friday night or all day on Saturday. I remember skating to classic songs such as Boogie Wonderland, Funkytown, We Will Rock You, My Sharona, Pop Muzik, and Another One Bites the Dust. Of course for "couple skating" there were those timeless treasures: Open Arms, Please Don't Go, and all the Air Supply stuff. If I missed a weekend of skating, I had missed out on the biggest social event in town.

I was always in awe of the skaters who could waltz. I wanted to be a waltzer. The reason I couldn't waltz is because I was afraid of falling and getting hurt. I mean, it's hard enough to hold yourself up much less having to worry about getting tangled up with two other feet. I played it safe because I didn't want to risk getting my teeth knocked out or my Farrah Fawcett hair messed up. Instead, couple skating for me consisted of holding some boy's sweaty hand. And sometimes I just sat on the sidelines, on those famous round, carpeted benches.

Isn't that the way life is? We are so afraid of getting hurt that we miss out on some of life's greatest opportunities. We are afraid of relationships, we fear death, we fear the unknown, we fear pain, and sometimes we fear God. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us the Spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Imagine what we could accomplish as Christ-followers if we could live a life without fear by surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah, we need to get off the sidelines and start waltzing.