I Love to Dance!

"Velcro... Next to the Walkman and Tab it is the coolest invention
of the 20th century!" Lynn (Helen Hunt) –Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Girls…do you mind if I call you that? I'll explain later…okay, I have a
confession… I love 80's movies! Can't Buy Me Love, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Buellers Day Off, Footloose, and When Harry Met Sally. Each is a classic. But there is one movie that will forever hold a treasured place in my heart and it is the one—the only—Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!


I can vividly recall my 8th grade slumber party in which a throng of preteen girls reenacted scene by scene, or rather step by step of this ground-breaking film. We were so cool. So why did/do I love Girls Just Wanna Have Fun? For starters, I'm always a big fan of movies that include dancing, but throw in neon spandex and you've got yourself a hit. But the number one reason I adore this classic is not for the fashion—though it is exceptional—I heart this movie because of one line, "I LOVE to dance!"

Janey (Sarah Jessica Parker—pre Carrie Bradshaw days) is the new girl in town. Soon she meets Lynne (Helen Hunt) who shares her passion for dancing in general, and "Dance TV" in particular. When a competition is announced to find a new Dance TV regular couple, the girls are determined to audition. Honestly I was hooked long before the dance off began. I was a sold the minute Janey looked at Lynn and said the words "I LOVE to dance."

You see, Janey's words resonated with something deep inside me. I too was a girl who longed to dance. I'm not at all saying I was good or even on beat for that matter—but I longed for the sheer bliss of simply letting go and dancing like you just don't care. For Janey, dancing was an expression of freedom. And my heart also desired—deeply desired to be free—free to dance.

Until I met Jesus Christ I was a girl who was anything but free. Shackled to intense insecurity, emptiness, sin, and shame—everything in me wanted to break loose. But I was a prisoner until the day—nearly a decade ago—when Jesus Christ redeemed me with His powerful love and grace. Redeemed! Set Free! Released from the hurt, shame, and emptiness that was my life apart from Him. Today my dancing springs from a deep current of life surging inside me that knows the exquisite joy of being a Redeemed Girl —and you guessed it, "I LOVE to dance!"

"It is for freedom that Christ set you free!" Galatians 5:1