Anne Frank & the Happy Dance

This past week I have established a ritual of listening to The Diary of Anne Frank on audiobook while doing the dishes. In this narrative Anne Frank, a teenage Jewish girl, candidly shares the woes and reflections of her life in hiding. Most people are familiar enough with this work to know this much, but I have not heard the insight Anne Frank possessed often mentioned.

Though I had read the book before as a girl, I hear more now that I am older and her insight astounds me... In fact, just recently something I heard Anne confide to her diary was so profound; it challenged me to change my entire outlook on life.

In order to for you understand how Anne Frank taught me the Happy Dance I need to make a shocking confession. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me because in truth I can be a cry-baby and sometimes greasy pans can put me in a foul mood. Which is why this Monday morning as I rushed to clear the sink and prepare lunch my attention was split between listening to Anne’s reflections on her life in hiding, applying some serious elbow grease to our frying pan, and mental berating myself for being irritated at Tim to the point of tears for leaving the crumbs of shredded cheese on my oven.

Truth be told, in my mental PC Anne and the dishes were open windows, but self-contempt was the program up on my monitor.

So I had a hard time hearing Anne’s voice over my own mental soundtrack reminding me that “You are a lazy, nagging wife.” Today I can tell you this was not true. Tim was not even there for me to nag and the reason the dishes weren’t done was that I had been at work earlier that morning. But nevertheless on Monday I was too tried and put-out to realize that the voice in my head was lying to me. The more I listened… the more amplified my contempt became. I started thinking, “Who are you to be depressed? Why are you crying about dishes? You think you have it hard, but you’re nothing but an ingrate. You have food to eat and a husband who loves you… so what right do you have to complain about anything?”

Just at that moment the Anne Frank window started flashing on the PC taskbar in my mind. She had a nugget of wisdom relative to my mental state and my brain was kind enough to dim the volume of my emotional tissy low enough for me not to miss hearing Anne’s reflection on her mother’s pessimistic approach to their frustrations [Mrs. Frank would think of all the miserable people in the world and try to be glad she wasn’t in their place]:

“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains... My advice is : "Go outside, to the fields, enjoy nature and the sunshine, go out and try to recapture happiness in yourself and in God. Think of all the beauty that's still left in and around you and be happy!"

I realized that I approach life like Mrs. Frank. When I am facing a difficulty I think of all the people in the world who have it worse off than I and then beat myself for not being more grateful until I can manage a content composure. Not only is this kind of self-imposed contentment completely fake, it’s counter-productive. In the end all I’ve succeeded in doing is forcing a more miserable me to grit her teeth and bear it with a smile plastered on her face. Now that Anne has pointed out to me the folly of this approach, I have determined to try out hers.

My spin on it is this:

When I feel sick, tired, depressed, defeated, fat, like-a-bad-wife, frustrated-with-housework, frustrated-with-God, etc…

I am going open a different window in my mental PC by doing something to recapture joy. I am going to sing, draw, go on a walk, play the piano, blog, or just dance around my house like a fool until simple pleasures remind me that life is good. Then I am going to thank God for the Happy Dance, my home, my families, my job, and most of all, my husband.

The Old Testament admonishes God-followers to recapture joy in this way. The Israelites returned to Jerusalem from exile only to discover a scroll containing God’s laws, which they had unknowingly broken for years. They were heartbroken and repented. Their leader, Nehemiah encouraged them, "to eat the fat, and drink the sweet, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” God's message to his people was

• not remember how much worse off people in slavery had it,
• not to fake a cheerful attitude and keep their nose to the grindstone with the rebuilding of Jerusalem,
• but to enjoy what He had given them to enjoy and thank him for it.

This attitude of "recapturing joy" gave me a new context for understanding Paul’s advice to the Philippians,

I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength (4:11b-13)

Here is the question that has taken new hold of my heart: "What if the strength that Christ gives us is the type of joy Nehemiah prescribed?” I think it must be. I think God wants us to think more like Anne Frank on this one.

God has wired his children so that somehow in enjoying Christ, in enjoying the gifts right in front of us, we can be elevated. It is here that we can find the strength of the Lord and contentment in all things. So if you're like me and secretly cry about dumb things like cheese on the stove top and dirty dishes, why not join me in giving joy a shot instead. We may end up:

like Paul and Silas still worshipping God in a prison cell…

Or simply drinking in the good in every moment…

Doing the happy dance.