Let them praise his name with dancing.
Psalm 149:3
It’s our human nature to settle into a grind while we look forward to whatever our dreams may be. It’s easy to slip into our daily routines, caught up in our to-do lists and responsibilities, all the while forgetting the joy of every day. We don’t have to wait until the fulfillment of our dreams to be happy. How sweet is our God! He wants us to enjoy Him and our lives every single day. If our joy was dependent on our dreams being fulfilled, how unsteady our joy would be. Riding the waves of the journey to our dreams could potentially rock our emotions, deplete our joy, and send us into a grind. So in this chapter, we’re going to stir up that joy in the journey. We’re going to unpack what it looks like to savor our daily dances, our everyday dances, and in turn discover deep joy—no matter where we are on our dreaming journeys.
In a way, this reminds me of marriage. Before the wedding, we’re all about bridal magazines, prepping for the big day, and planning the honeymoon. We can hardly wait until the day we get to begin a new life with our hubby. But if we aren’t intentional about continuing to enjoy the everyday with our spouse, we can lose the joy of marriage! I know for Brian and me, some days the responsibilities, to-do lists, and cares of the day can outweigh the joy of “us.” So we make sure we have fun too. And that’s what I want to pinpoint in this chapter for you: I know I can get so serious about God sometimes that I forget He created laughter, fun, and joy. These were all His idea, so I’m convinced that part of the abundant life He has to offer us is a life of abundant joy. And this life is found not only on the days our dreams are fulfilled but also in the journey and the everyday.
What Makes You Giddy
Maybe you’ve lost your joy. Maybe you’re not sure where it went. Or maybe you just feel like you have to battle more for it. I get that. The world doesn’t make it easy to live with joy, and we do have an enemy who would love to steal it away from us. One check of the news can be such a downer. Darkness seems to be winning sometimes, doesn’t it? I feel that weight too. Also, I know some of you have been through things I don’t understand, things that are harder and deeper than I can speak to. Just know that, while I don’t have words for the ache you feel, I love that you are here. All I can do is keep pointing you to the Lord because I do know this: He has the words, He has the comfort, and He has the love you need. While I don’t know the depth of your pain, I know He is strong enough to help you through it. Thank you for being here.
I have found that one of the ways you can enjoy your journey is by tapping into what makes you giddy. By giddy, I mean lighthearted, joyful, and silly with excitement. What does that to you? What makes you forget about your email or your to-do list? The things that fill your heart to the brim and cause it to beat faster are the very things God uses to stir up your joy. But here’s the thing: as we become more grown-up or start feeling like life has stolen our joy, sometimes we push those delights out of our lives, maybe without even meaning to. We settle into a rhythm of routines, responsibilities, and to-dos, and we forget to make time for the delights of our hearts. Now these are different from the dreams of our hearts. Delights are everyday things that feed our souls so we can savor and enjoy our daily dances no matter where we are on our dreaming journeys. Let me give you an example from my own life.
My dream to write is a big dream, and it has been quite a long journey filled with hurdles, delays, and detours along the way. This dream definitely makes me giddy, but I cannot depend on the fulfillment of this dream to keep my heart dancing every day. I cannot live for the day my first book is on the shelf, although you might find me dancing in the aisles of the bookstore on that day! I cannot stop the flow of joy and hold it all in until that day. I need giddiness today. It affects my marriage, my relationship with my kids, my mood, my attitude, my everything, and it refreshes me for my everyday dance. When I start pushing out the things that bring me joy and trade them in for simply plowing through my day, I lose my giddiness. And without it, I stop dreaming. Without it, I stop loving fully. Without it, I stop appreciating everyday moments.
My relationship with Jesus makes me giddy. I can’t talk about giddiness without talking about Him. He overwhelms me with how good He is and how He not only saved us eternally but also lives in relationship with us. Jesus is the sweetest part of our dreaming journey and all our everyday moments. But, let me note, I can easily make my relationship with Him a chore or an obligation or another line on my to-do list if I’m not careful. So keeping my relationship with Jesus fresh is what brings me joy. We all have our own thing going on with the Lord, you know? Some of us like to meet with Him first thing in the morning, while some of us meet with Him right before bed. Some of us like reading plans, while some of us find them overwhelming. Some of us pray on walks, while some of us pray in stillness. My point is, each one of our relationships with Him is going to look different—and that’s beautiful.
In a practical sense, here are some other things that make me completely giddy: speaking to groups of women and bringing them encouragement in their walk with the Lord, journaling, taking a long walk, gardening, reading a good book, hanging out with my three boys, and going on dates with my hubby. That’s kind of the short list, but you get the idea. I need these things to keep my heart beating fast and to feel alive. What about you? What makes you giddy?
We touched earlier on how these desires can point to what we are made to do, but here we are focusing on how they can bring us joy in the day to day. Sometimes when I find myself in a little bit of a funk, perhaps stuck in the grind, I will notice that I haven’t been doing many of these things. The minute I remember not just what makes me giddy but why these things are so important, a newness takes over in me. These things refresh, renew, and reenergize us. We become better versions of ourselves when we laugh, play, and have fun. When we tap into those things that are “us,” we flourish. And God wants us to flourish. He wants us to enjoy life.
I realize you can’t cast your routines, responsibilities, and work into the wind and go frolic through the wildflowers all day to keep your joy flowing, but is there a small step you could take today to tap into something that brings you joy? Could you take a long walk? Arrange some flowers? Take some photos? Build something? Design something? Get a massage? Play a game of tennis? Spend some time in your garden? Ski down a mountain? (I’m borrowing examples from my family of things that make them giddy. Love y’all . . . and I love how each of you are so uniquely wired.) What feeds your soul and how can you do a little more soul-feeding each day? When our souls are fed, our hearts come up from out of the grind. When we tap into our points of giddiness, we are savoring everyday life and stirring up our joy.
Feeling God’s Pleasure
When we do the things we love, we feel the pleasure of God in us and over us. Tapping into the way He wired us brings Him joy and we feel joy in return.
I can’t really explain why I loved dancing professionally. All I know is that when I danced, I felt in tune with God’s heartbeat for me. My limbs seemed to know what to do, and my heart seemed to function best when I danced. It’s the same with motherhood. My heart loves it. I feel like I’m doing what I was made to do. And now with writing, it’s not something I feel obligated to do. It’s not something I have to sit down and make myself do; the words just swell up inside me and need a keyboard. I’m not saying writing is easy or doesn’t have its hard moments, but it’s something my heart feels wired to do—and so this heart and I, we write.
I think about family members again here: each of them taps into the things that either they love to do or that make them swell with creativity and I see the joy this brings them. This is true for Brian too. I love watching him build things. When he’s out on the patio building something, he’s not stressed out, he’s filled up. He works with wood and tools not because he feels like he has to but because he wants to. I love that so much. When we do the things that bring us joy, we get a taste of God’s pleasure.
Of course I have to mention the classic movie Chariots of Fire. “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” This line gets me every time I think about it because running doesn’t seem like a spiritual thing, does it? But for Eric Liddell, running was spiritual. It put him in touch with God. Could it be that we feel God most when we do the things we were made to do? Could it be that we feel God’s pleasure when we focus on the things we feel compelled to do, not obligated to do? Only God could be that creative. Only God.
But life knocks on the door of our hearts and, in a way, wakes us up to reality. So we set aside the things that allow us to feel God’s pleasure. We have to focus on the nitty-gritty things of life to, well, keep life going. But I encourage you to remember to make time for the things that allow you to feel God’s pleasure. Tap into them a little each day. Some days, get completely lost in them. Don’t leave them on the sidelines, because they are the very things that put life into your daily dance.
Enjoying Your Design
We are each so uniquely wired that experiencing God’s pleasure will look completely different from one person to the next. That’s the beauty of it all. Our God created the landscape of the earth so vastly different from one state to the next, from one ocean to the next, from one galaxy to the next, and so has He created each of us so vastly different from one another. When we do the things we are designed to do and the things that give us great joy, it’s like little specks of light going out into a dark world. And each of us doing our little sparkling dance together sends more and more light into this world. So be you. Pick up that paintbrush, gather those books, dive into that project, or rock motherhood . . . enjoy your design.
There are moments when I resist my design. One night at a Bible study, my leader looked me straight in the eyes and told me that I’m an empath; I take on the emotions of others and feel them too. But here’s the catch: she pointed out that it was a gift and implored me to lean in to it. But, honestly, sometimes I wish I didn’t feel so deeply because it can be exhausting. She helped me see that being an empath went hand in hand with being the kind of writer I longed to be. Maybe you wish you were more or less of something too—more studious, less serious, less passionate, more creative, less sensitive . . . you get the idea! But I encourage you to embrace your design.
We touched on this in chapter 2, but now I want to pinpoint how we easily resist our design instead of enjoying how we were created. This is because sometimes our design can look or feel like a weakness. But what if we instead viewed our perceived weaknesses as gifts? This doesn’t mean we can’t hope for growth or change in some areas. But often we resist the very way God made us—or at least I do. And living that way is frustrating. I don’t know that I would write if I wasn’t a feeler. What wouldn’t you do if God had not wired you the way He did? The way you are wired points to the way you are gifted. Lean in to your design because God knew just what He was doing when He created you.
When You Want to Find Your Calling
We talked earlier about how God has dreams made just for us, and discovering those dreams are part of the dance of doing life with Him. I think sometimes we can get so hyperfocused on figuring out what our calling is—what God created us to do and be—that we lose the joy of the everyday.
Finding your calling is important, but right now I want to send some relief your way, because sometimes finding your calling can feel like a big mystery. It can feel confusing and exhausting, leaving you disappointed when it doesn’t happen as quickly as you’d like. Dear dancing heart, you are called. Each of us is called to love God and to love others. God doesn’t mean for your calling to be a big secret that only He knows and that you are constantly trying to figure out. Fulfilling your calling means pressing into your relationship with Jesus.
Sometimes we have to let go of giving our callings official titles and instead be fully confident in our Guide. God wants us to be so confident in who He is—in His faithful character and His heart for us—that we live life not just coasting through the grind but dancing with expectation and joy. Some of us know our callings, such as teacher, writer, dancer, or mom, while others of us are still trying to figure them out. And still others of us are discovering new callings by the decade. But we don’t have to be in a web of confusion about this quest as long as we keep in step with our Savior day by day. He loves to dance with us through life, step-by-step. In some moments, we will question the direction we are going, and that’s okay. In other moments, we will try something we thought God might be directing us toward only to discover it’s not for us, and that’s okay too. Part of the dance of dreaming with God and of savoring our dances is trying things. It’s the trying, the conversations with the Lord, and the trusting Him with it all that makes life so purposeful!
He won’t let us miss the things He has for us as long as we are seeking Him. While I do believe the enemy of our souls loves to distract and detour us from our callings, I also believe that as we seek Christ, He helps us stay connected to them. At times life may feel more like a battle than a dance. At other times, as we walk step-by-step with Him, we may feel things are gliding along pretty smoothly and we’re staying on our toes. And still at other times we may feel like we’re tripping over our own two feet. But in our stumbling, God carries us and redirects us. “LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the LORD, who counsels me” (Ps. 16:5–7).
God is our portion and our cup; He has assigned us just the right amount of what we need to do the things He wants to do through us. He has assigned us the correct qualifications, experiences, and personality and character traits we will need. He makes our callings—and, oh, there will be several over our lifetimes—completely secure. We don’t have to chase them. We don’t have to hold them with a fierce grip. We don’t have to fear that someone will take them from us. They’re secure because of His hold on them and His hold on us, just as our salvation in Him is secure.
God has put in place beautiful boundary lines that are good and pleasant. We think of boundaries as bad things sometimes, but we flourish within them. Boundary lines keep us in step with how God has designed us. This is a beautiful thing.
And our inheritance, all that we gain from knowing Jesus, all that He gifts us—complete forgiveness of all sin, grace to completely cover you—is delightful. When we keep His gifts in the forefront of our minds, we settle into the everyday steps of our callings with greater joy. And this: He counsels us. Think of the magnitude of this. The God of the universe counsels us.
You know, I think that’s an invitation to sit down with Him and really have heart-to-hearts with Him on a daily basis. If we’re caught up in confusion over our callings or the direction in our lives, we can pull up a chair to the heart of God. I recently came across Luke 3:21, which says, “As he was praying, heaven was opened.” When Jesus pulled His heart up close to God’s heart and prayed, heaven opened. While heaven is probably not going to literally open up when we pray, when we seek His counsel, He gladly opens His heart to us. He gladly gives us direction. He gladly offers us comfort. He gladly loves us right there in that moment. He gladly helps us find more clarity in our callings. He may not give us an outline and timeline of His plans, but He gladly provides us wisdom for the next step.
So when you feel your heart twisting into knots over His plans for you, get lost in something that makes your heart giddy. Get lost in those things that allow you to feel His pleasure. I say this with compassion because I know how hard it is to find time for those things. It can feel selfish to ignore the dirty dishes and dive into a good book instead. And clearly, you can’t be lazy and drop all your responsibilities all the time. But when you do step away for a moment, you’ll know when you need to get back to them. And the time away will be worth it, because your giddiness will help you enjoy your day-to-day responsibilities even more.
But when you leave out God’s pleasure, your dance becomes a grind. Just like in marriage, as we talked about earlier, you have to be intentional about keeping the joy alive in your everyday life.
I typically danced two ways. One was an unjoyful way, caught up in the negative things. If I was caught up in the competition, the comparisons, the pressure, or the pain of injuries, dancing became a grind. Sometimes I wouldn’t recognize it until I saw it in another dancer. It was as though they had lost the light in their eyes. But when I remembered what a blessing it was to dance, when I got lost in the character I was playing onstage, when I got caught up in the fun and forgot about the pressure, that’s when dancing was truly joyful. And that’s how I want to live life . . . dancing. Delighting in the good things, not caught up in the negative things. Living life dancing is really feeling God’s pleasure. I invite you today to feel God’s pleasure again by tuning in to the things He’s instilled in you that make your heart dance with giddiness. I hope you’re encouraged today to savor not only the big dream moments but also the everyday joys of life.
Prayer, Scripture, and Reflection
for Your Dreaming Heart
Jesus, bring the joy and giddiness back to my daily life, no matter where I am on my dreaming journey. Stir up my joy with Your love and the things that You wired my heart to enjoy. Show me how I can tap into those things each day and live life dancing. Help me savor the everyday pleasures and not just live for the big moments. May I see the delights of the everyday as I experience Your pleasure in the things You wired me to love. Ultimately, thank You for being my greatest source of joy and my constant Counselor through this dance of life.
“For the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10
“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Psalm 28:7
“The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him.” Psalm 37:23
1. How is your level of joy in the day-to-day? Do you find yourself battling to find joy or does it come naturally to you?
2. What makes you completely giddy? Have you considered that those things are your way of experiencing God’s pleasure?
3. If you were to give yourself permission to tap into those things today, what would that look like?
4. How does your giddiness for the things you love affect other areas of your life?
5. In what ways do you tend to resist your design? Which of your perceived weaknesses might actually be gifts?
6. How can you truly savor your dance today so you can live life dancing rather than living only for the big moments?