This book was born out of my search for real, true peace, joy, and contentment in my dream chasing and my daily life. Dance is the language that I know. From the time I was nine years old, ballet captivated my heart. You don’t have to be a ballet dancer or know anything about ballet to read this book! My hope is that whether or not you are a dancer, you will enjoy the tidbits about the ballet world and about how, in so many ways, dancing is a beautiful metaphor for our walk with God. This dreaming journey is really your dreaming journey. You will hear about my story, but my prayer is that you will find God in a deeper way in your story. You see, the sweet thing is, each of us has our own unique dances with the Lord. Your unique journey with the Lord in discovering the dreams He has purposed for you is your dreaming dance.
My background is in professional ballet. I penned my way through the years of dancing professionally, never once thinking I would ever share a word I wrote. I wrote because writing helped me seek God and process what He was teaching me. And through some hoops and hurdles and my own dreaming dance with God, here this ballet of words rests in your hands.
I remember so clearly the day I tentatively mentioned to my husband, Brian, my desire to write books. Back then I simply wanted to encourage ballet dancers in their walk with the Lord, something I was desperately looking for when I was a young professional dancer. I wanted to hear from someone who understood the ballet world. This dream began to swell in my heart, and I finally whispered it to God, then to Brian. Thankfully, Brian did not think I was crazy! He believed in this little dream. And it became a dance. It became a dance of learning, trusting, waiting, and growing, and I am so thankful it found its way to your heart. I am praying for your heart that as you journey through these pages, you discover dreaming with God is the sweetest dance.
One thing I love about the ballet studio is that when you enter, you can leave everything else outside the doors and just go in and dance. To get into the zone of the music and the movement is to find a little relief from stress and life. I pray this book is like a little getaway for your heart and a retreat for your soul. I hope you can set aside some things for a while, set down some stress, and zone in on God’s heart for you in your own dreaming journey. On that note, I want you to know that this book is meant for your own scribbles. I want you to make it your own—mark it up and dog-ear the pages. At the end of each chapter, you will have room to answer some reflection questions and extra space to record your thoughts. My hope is that this book becomes a journal of your own dance with the Lord.
I’m so excited to send you off on your journey with the Lord. He truly is calling you to dream with Him. His grace is the place where you can lay down your striving, your discontentment, your desires, and your dreams and trade them in for His strength, His peace, and His direction. The pathway to this place of grace—this place of deep joy and contentment with who you are and to Whom you belong—is surrender. This surrendering of your life and your dreams is a daily dance of surrendering every detail and every dream—every day. I pray your soul begins this life-changing dance today.