My Worst Fear Realized

One of the great things about being a junior high leader is that you regularly get to act completely undignified. You get to shove marshmallows in your mouth and pose for the camera, jump up in the air and scream, use face paint to identify what team you're on, and generally make a fool of yourself.

All this and more I have done. It's really a blast. But tonight, our leader, JD was singing a song about dancing and shouting. He decided that we should dance and shout. And he said, "And to show you how to dance, here's Annie... [not me, not me] and Jill."

Now, I don't really don't mind doing scripted signs to "Waves of Mercy." And I move around a lot during worship. But what he wanted was unscripted, wild, somewhat coordinated dancing.

I'm a Baptist girl. I don't do unscripted dancing. Or, I should say, when I do, people laugh. In fact, I would say that dancing in front of people is just about the scariest thing to me ever. But I tried. Annie and twirled, and laughed, and did the do-si-do. And by the end of the worship set, everyone was doing the do-si-do. We were silly.

And you know what? It was fun. The kids had fun, and no one laughed. At least not in a mean way. We were completely undignified, and hopefully, the kids and I both learned to care a little bit less about what people think. And in an odd way, I think being wild and crazy lets them know that we love them. That we aren't above them, stuffy and untouchable. That we care enough to look like complete fools. To be a part of their youthful, energetic world.

So I'll become even more undignified than this.