I’ve never been the one closing down the dance floor. Usually at weddings I barely even touch the dance floor, except for just a couple of songs. But my reception will have dancing and I’m at least going to have to do two dances where it’s just me and my partner, for the first dance and for the father and daughter dance.

So I’ve been taking a few dance lessons to practice and to just get used to feeling the music and the beat, which is where I’ve always struggled.

One of the first things the dance teachers taught was letting the man lead in any of these dances I’m learning. When I heard that, I was relieved! I didn’t have to worry about making sure I made the right steps, I just needed to follow my partner’s lead. But it’s actually really hard to release any control, and much less to fully allow someone else to lead, especially when I think I know what step is next.

In these dances, most of the time, I’m moving backwards while my partner is moving forwards. I can’t see where I’m going or where his feet are compared to my feet and I don’t want to get stepped on. But if I take the time to look back or look at my feet, I’ll miss the cues my partner is giving me on where to move and we’ll just stumble around.

The more the dance teachers talked about leading and following, the more it pointed to how our relationship with Christ should be. We are meant to release control of our lives to Him and allow Him to lead us in where He wants us to go. That takes a lot of trust.

It also takes practice. We’re taught to learn to do things on our own, encouraged to be a leader. Asking someone else to take the lead, and relying on God to lead us in our whole life – not just the parts we want to let go of – is something I’m having to do every day. Multiple times a day, even.

It’s been a while since I’ve heard the song “I Will Follow” by Chris Tomlin, but the lyrics have been a great guide to helping me pray for help in trusting to follow God wherever He leads.

“Where You go, I’ll go

Where You stay, I’ll stay

When You move, I’ll move

I will follow.”