I’m a windshield guy, not a rear view mirror guy. Looking behind you can be helpful, but that’s not where I’m going. That’s where I’ve been.

In the same vein, I don’t do a lot of soul searching over decisions made, clothes bought or  miles traveled. That was then and this is now.

Having said that, I did attempt to play that little game called “If-I-Could-Have-‘Do-0vers’ – What-Would-I-Do-Differently?” So I went back and reviewed the major decisions of my life … and concluded there’s not a whole lot I would have changed.

I’d marry the same cute eighteen year old. I’d want the same incredible sons and their sweet wives. I would change little about where full-time ministry has taken me for 58 years. I’d choose the same seven grandchildren. By and large I’d reorder my life with few changes.

Except I would have danced!

I didn’t say ‘dance more’ … I said I would have danced.

Some who know me would say, “But we saw you dancing at a wedding reception or two.” No, I was standing still, holding on to Joanie while she danced. My feet were pretty much glued to the floor.

I’m unwilling, but while growing up I was instructed that dancing was wrong … by the same people who warned that going to a movie theatre was a sin. (Staying home to watch something wicked on TV was allowable!) Christianity has fought the Pharisaical mindset for a long time. We’ve been judged by the length of our skirts, hair and scowl, not by the joy and freedom of salvation in our hearts.

God’s critical directions and instructions are relatively simple. But they don’t include things like:

• which translation of the Bible is God’s favorite (because He really digs the way people in Great Britain spoke in the 1600s)
• or that all musical worship must be sung a-cappella or accompanied by a pipe organ (the older the organ, the better)
• or the more stern and unhappy you look, the stronger your testimony to unbelievers will be

And we’ve learned a myriad of other addendums we’ve added to God’s original counsel. Our testimony shouldn’t denote God’s anger, but His love and desire to adopt us into His family.

Every time we add our own rules or our interpretations to his rules, we add layers of heaviness that extracts a bit of life that God intended us to enjoy. Freedom in Christ is replaced by only ‘duty to Christ’ and while I have the privilege of following Him I wish to do it with gusto, not guilt.

I wish I would have danced.

May you have joy and dancing feet on your journey!