There is...a time to dance. ~Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4 NKJV

I've recently reconnected with some of my oldest friends, girls with whom I've grown up at the church nursery, sharing giggles and secrets and planning dangerous escapades (such as ditching Chinese school...after asking permission from our parents!). It becomes more and more difficult to stay involved with each other's lives as the years go by, first as we all ventured off to different colleges and now as we have moved to different parts of the country to embark on our first jaunts into adulthood and the working world. Seeing as how we are of a generation that grew up with the technological wonder of the Internet, it seems only logical that we seek to stay "in touch" with each other in this way: blogging.

As I began to set up this blog, the registration steps brought me to the page where I had to choose a title. Being literary and somewhat philosophically minded, I confess I felt stumped and sat and thought about it for a long time. What exactly is a good title for my blog? Does it reflect what I will be writing? Does it show where I am in my life or where I hope to go? Does it say something about my way of looking at the world? So I settled on "Joining the Dance " (after finding "Learning to Dance" already taken :-) ).

Working in the publishing world exposes a person to a lot of different books that one might not always find or pick up normally. Our company happens to have a "free books" shelf in the lunch room where we newer and fresher employees find great excitement and glee in picking up books that actually cost us nothing (even though our employee discounts make books really cheap anyway). So months ago, I picked up a book entitled When Wallflowers Dance by Angela Thomas. The title intrigued me, because I have always really identified with being somewhat of a wallflower, the girl who was not necessarily ugly or bullied but was unknown, present and observing but transparent to others, unnoticed and unseen, blending in to stay out of the way.

"The wallflower woman who's just happy to be in the same room as God and very thankful to spend eternity in His heaven. Maybe if I stayed out of trouble and didn't call too much attention to my life, God would be pleased and He'd listen to my prayers, and that would be a good life to have." But it turns out that is not the life that Jesus calls us to live. It turns out Jesus is that better-than-fairytale prince who looks across the room and sees the quiet girl standing against the wall, almost seeming like she's trying to blend into the wallpaper, and it turns out that while she's staring at her feet, he suddenly appears at her side and offers his hand to her, saying "Shall we dance?"

"Dancing is living in the fullness of your purpose for this life on earth...Dancing means you have eyes that can see what matters for eternity. Dancing is a passionate life. Adventure. And living without fear...Jesus said, I came to give life--life in all its fullness (John 10:10 NCV), and no woman who makes her life in Christ has to live empty." After I read that first chapter, I realized that this is what I'm in the midst of doing, the journey my life is on: joining the dance. For so long, I've been "un-becoming," as Angela Thomas put it, fading away and losing sight of my identity and purpose. Moving here to Nashville was an impulsive, crazy idea, but God was engineering every one of my steps. Looking back, I can see all the little things that came together to bring me here, the people that I met when I got here, the words that people have said, all coming together for God's greater purpose for this season: bringing me out of the comfort and safety of home where I was stagnated but too apathetic and confused to do anything and taking me to a completely new place where I would be forced to step out and make choices and seek after God's purposes for me, learning to let go of old things and to break out and walk in the freedom of really trusting God and His love for me.

This is my path. This is my great adventure.