The Demonstrative Prayer

Growing up in the Methodist tradition meant a more reserved style of worship than some of the Pentecostal groups within the community who were said to clap their hands, or wave them in the air, or maybe even move up and down the aisle.  Such things never happened in the Methodist Church of my boyhood.  Neither did it happen in the churches I served as pastor for over forty years.  Oh, there were moments when there was a break in the decorum, but normally no one got too enthusiastic about worshiping, or praying, or praising.    

A life within such a reserved tradition has had its effect on me.  As I have gotten older I am more likely to be more demonstrative in my response to God, but it mostly happens in private moments instead of the public ones.  As I have become acquainted through reading with Celtic spirituality, I have sensed a movement toward more demonstrative moments in prayer.  There are times when the words seemed inadequate to express what is stirring within us.  

Sometimes what is stirring within is impossible to frame with words.  Perhaps, the Psalmist was sensing such within as he wrote, "Praise Him with tambourine and dance..."  (Psalm 150:4)  Or, maybe this is part of the reason a woman wrote about an experience of dancing with arms outstretched to God in the light of the rising full moon.  Or, perhaps, this is why some soul would raise their hands in the midst of a sedate worship experience and risk the judgmental stares of those who were so glued to earth they could not see heaven breaking in among them.  It is hard for those of us who have been disciplined to pray, or praise, or worship without making a disturbance to entertain a different way, but just maybe, it would do our souls a measure of good to let them free for a moment of shaking that tambourine and dancing with the wind.