When will we dance?

And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet. II Samuel 6:14-15

    Growing up in the Nazarene Church, I did not witness very much in the way of emotion in our church services.  Of course, there were frequent tears and an occasional raising of hand (emphasis on singular intentional).  However, seldom did I witness anyone get so blessed they shouted or ran the aisles.  In fact, I cannot remember anyone doing that.  My father took our family to a Pentescostal church once, and my first glimpse of what we might now term “charismatic,” scared me to death.  Coming from my sedate Nazarene church, well, let me just say for most of the prayer my heart beat triple-time and I am certain my eyes were like saucers, especially when I thought the people behind me were going to leap headlong over the pew in which I was sitting.  As I grew and had the opportunity to visit different churches (most of them Nazarene), my experience changed as I witnessed some shouting, loud choruses of “Amens!” and an occasional “Hallelujah!”  As a student at Trevecca, there was a precious little lady at Nashville First Church, who I thought must be 100, who would step out into the aisle on occasion and throw her hand in the air (handkerchief held high) and do a little dance up and down the aisles when she got excited. 

     While I do not know what your experiences have been, I would guess if you have been in many churches or watched any “televangelism,” you have seen an occasional display of extreme emotion.  And while some of what we have witnessed may have been “for show,” I question whether many of us in the Church today know how to handle our emotions in church at all anymore.  In our quest for always “being appropriate,” I wonder if we have not gone way too close to the other extreme and become too “controlled.” 

     I am not suggesting there is anything wrong with keeping our emotions in check when we get blessed necessarily.  But is it at all possible that in our effort to avoid drawing attention to ourselves in worship we have also made ourselves invisible to the Holy Spirit?  Can it be possible that in our effort to have church on our terms we have forgotten what worship is?  Warren Wiersbe says worship is: the believer’s response of all that they are – mind, emotions, will, body – to what God is and says and does.  Is it possible to focus so hard on disengaging our body from the process of worship that we stand more proud than worshipful?  In our quest to go unnoticed by the people around us, do we sacrifice humility and brokenness and the Spirit’s ability to do what He desires within us? 

     We have said so many times lately we are longing for a revival in our church and in our nation.  Can you imagine revival coming in the midst of a people who concentrate so much on keeping public displays of emotion out of the anointing?  

     When I consider what we are told in I Samuel 13, when God rejected Saul as king and had in mind to place on the throne a “man after His own heart,” who we know turned out to be David – and when I further consider how David danced for joy before the ark as it was returned to Jerusalem, I can only wonder what it will take to be so filled with that kind of joy I would dance before my King.  When it comes, will I be so concerned that I’m not a distraction to the people around me and that I not draw attention to myself that I refuse to abandon myself to the joy of worshipping the Author of that joy, or will I “cut loose” and worship Him like He’s the only One watching?