Recently I heard the song “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga and it reminded me of something I read in the Bible.

I believe that ‘all truth is God’s truth’ and so I celebrate and acknowledge truth wherever I find it.

The Bible teaches that God created a good world which went bad. It teaches that we live in a broken world and things have gone wrong. There is beauty and good in our world but there are also many tragedies. Some people complain about the long lines at the grocery store while others go to bed hungry. Cancer swoops up on the kindest person while the crook lives on. We encounter this brokenness daily as we hear of stories on the news and also ponder the depravity of our own desperate hearts.

“Just Dance” by Lady Gaga provides an alternative for the troubled world we live in. A different way of dealing with the pain. The song is about a girl who wakes up at a stranger’s house after a night of intoxication and carousing. She’s worried about not knowing how she arrived there and she can’t find her phone or keys. She has a hang over and can’t see straight. She can’t even remember the name of the club. Yet, in the midst of this complicated, corrupt and crappy situation she has one solution: Just Dance. This “just dance” sounded familiar to something the Apostle Paul did when he was in a sticky situation.

In the city of Philippi there was a slave girl who had the ability to tell the future. Her owners made a lot of money off of her talents until she had a run in with Paul the Apostle. Paul freed her from a tormenting spirit.  The owners did not appreciate Paul’s healing touch and they decided to do something about it. They reported Paul to the authorities and had him arrested. Here is the account in the Bible.

Acts 16:19 – 24

When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Paul’s difficult circumstance was the result of his attempt to overthrow those who were exploiting the weak. Obviously getting stripped, beaten and thrown in jail is different than waking up at a stranger’s house with a hang over. However, both situations are dealing with less than favorable circumstances. Lady Gaga’s response “just dance.” Paul’s response…..

Acts 16:25

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Paul’s response: pray and sing.

Lady Gaga’s response: just dance.

Both of these alternatives offer hope in the face of doom. Both Lady Gaga and Paul try to make the best out of a bad situation.

They both offer hope and yet their responses are incredibly different because they are rooted in two different sources. We know from other writings that Paul hopes in a personal God who he believes has set the stage for the eventual renewal and restoration of this broken world. His alternative is firmly rooted in a hope which he has experienced first hand and a hope which he has already seen the first fruits of. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the hope which Paul roots his praying and singing in.

What source does Lady Gaga place her hope in? It is hard to say. I took a quick look at her website and read her bio as well as the Wikipedia page on her and there doesn’t seem to be a source. She has been heavily influenced by David Bowie and Freddy Mercury. In fact her stage name, “ga-ga” comes from the song Radio Ga-Ga by Queen. Apparently she went to a Roman Catholic private school at the age of 11 but beyond that there is no mention of God in her bio or wiki-page. Obviously these two places are not the greatest places for understanding her theological or philosophical stance. I admit that I don’t know enough about this lady to say what her deeper driving convictions are.

In my opinion both are great alternatives to dealing with the craziness of life. Both aim at being optimistic and hopeful in complicated or unfortunate circumstances. Yet I would argue that one option is better than the other.

As far as I can see Lady Gaga’s “just dance” has no reference point. What if “just dance” just isn’t firmly rooted in anything sturdy? Why should we “just dance”? What if we should “just NOT dance”? What if we should “just rethink things?” What if we should “just mourn?” I’m not saying she wouldn’t advocate these things and perhaps I’m reading too much into her lyrics?

Many of us are drawn to “just dance” because we are so desperate for relief. But sometimes relief isn’t what we need? What if tension is something we have to learn to live with and carry? What if Paul’s solution to pray and sing is a healthier solution in the long run?