As little girls, my sister and I would prance around the house with a rainbow-colored ribbon. It was a couple of yards long and attached to a wand at the end, which we would use to twirl it around and around. We would create figure 8's and circles, in front, behind, above, and around ourselves. Not only was it incredibly fun but it made us feel like little ballerinas, leaping and frolicking gracefully (and not so gracefully) through the rooms and hallways of our house.
There's just something about fabric colliding with the air that is so beautiful. Everytime the forces meet the movement it creates is so elegant and graceful. We have some control over the path that the fabric takes, but so much is left up to the way that the fabric hits the air. That element of freedom that the fabric has, free from human mechanics and control, is what makes it so beautiful.
This last Wednesday, our squad was invited to do worship for a two hour window in the evening at the IHOP (International House of Prayer) in Chisinau, Moldova. Seven of our teams showed up that night. We all arrived at IHOP before our designated worship time and got to partake in the Messianic Jewish worship that had commenced, which involved lots of dancing and shouting – and a shofar!
When it was our squad's turn to worship, all our musical people made it to the stage to bless us and glorify God by using their gifts. During the Messianic Jewish worship I had been eying the flags that some people had been waving around and dancing with up front. It reminded me of those ribbons that my sister and I used to dance around the house with. Finally I decided I was just going to grab one from up front and try it out (after practicing out back a little first). After recruiting some others to come up with me, we marched up to the front, in the middle of the song, and started waving those flags.
What normally would be totally out of my comfort zone, was completely and utterly freeing! It didn't matter that the whole auditorium was watching, most were engrossed in their worship to the Lord anyway. That night, waving that flag was the conduit through which I worshipped; it was a new and special way of expressing myself to the Lord. The movement was a method to display outwardly what was welling up inwardly. It was like the emotions inside of me were
flowing out of my heart,
up my arm,
into the rod of the flag,
and moving through that flag,
to show in the physical what was happening on my insides, it was connected to my spirit.
The light weight of the fabric made it move in slow motion and all I could do was watch it in wonder, mesmerized by the fashion in which it cut through the air.
I want to be able express my spirit to the Lord in movement.
I want to be free to "wave my flag" whenever I worship my God.
I am going to make a point to practice "spiritual kinetics" a lot more often.
(Photos courtesy of Ashlee Castle)
