Changing Your Posture Can Change Your Faith

Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. —Psalm 95:6 NIV

I still remember the soft purple cotton leotard my mom bedazzled for my first dance recital. I smiled until my face hurt when I saw the audience react in delight as my fellow dancers and I completed the routine. In my mind I was a star. In reality I was a preschooler whose moves were more cute than graceful.

That recital performance was the first of many. I danced on stage for more than fifteen years. My classes spanned from ballet to traditional African dance.

These days, most of my dancing happens in my kitchen to an audience I birthed. I catch myself tap dancing when waiting in line. I still carry many benefits of all those years of dance: confidence, rhythm, flexibility, and proper posture.

Posture is crucial in dance. Instructors constantly correct students at the barre, reminding them to pull back their shoulders, elongate their necks, and tuck their tailbones. The goal is to create a graceful line and a strong spine.

Non-dancers should be concerned about posture as well. Medicine tells us posture is crucial for spine health. In our tech-saturated days, we are developing slumped shoulders because of endless hours sitting at a computer. “Text neck” is a painful condition caused by the alignment we default to while looking at our phones.

I’ve been thinking about the connection between physical and spiritual posture. When we want to feel confident, we are encouraged to stand tall. Research shows proper posture may help fight depression. Posture seems as essential to our mental health as to our physical health. Does posture affect our spiritual health as well?

I attend a modern evangelical church, where arms stretch wide in worship every week. We seem to be comfortable with expressing our love to God in this way.

I love watching those around me give their bodies in loving surrender to Jesus. I remember one week, while we all sang and raised hands, noticing a lone woman kneeling in the aisle next to her cushioned seat. It gave me pause. During times of prayer, our pastors call for bowed heads, but never bended knee. This woman’s posture of reverence and humility stayed with me.

Posture of Reverence

If you enter a traditional church building, you may find something not found in our modern churches full of geometric lights and smoke machines: kneelers. Kneeling in church was once so common, we designed furniture to make it more comfortable. Why have we abandoned this practice in many churches today?

While a designated position for prayer isn’t commanded in Scripture, kneeling can bring reverence to our prayers. The Bible mentions various types of kneeling before God, from kneeling in worship to falling prostrate in awe and fear. Kneeling is a vulnerable position. Our hands are folded, our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. In kneeling, our bodies reflect our belief that God is in control and worthy of our trust. In an age when it’s easy to see Jesus as our friend and brother, it’s crucial to also remember his status as Lord. He deserves our reverence and respect—mind, body, and soul.

Posture of Humility

Kneeling serves as a physical reminder of our place in God’s kingdom. I have shared before that I struggle with the sins of pride and self-sufficiency. When I bend my knees, I mirror the bending of the will happening in my soul. We must bend both the body and the heart toward God for the physical position to matter.

I love what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said about the importance of bending the body and spirit to God:

When kneeling becomes merely external, a merely physical act, it becomes meaningless. On the other hand, when someone tries to take worship back into the purely spiritual realm and refuses to give it embodied form, the act of worship evaporates, for what is purely spiritual is inappropriate to the nature of man. Worship is one of those fundamental acts that affect the whole man.

You can learn proper posture on your own, but lasting change comes with the help of a teacher. In my dancing days, my teacher walked down the row of young bodies, gently laying her hand on a shoulder or lower back, reminding us to be aware of these areas without a word.

We can be tempted to bow to many things in this world. Power, wealth, prestige, fame, even love whisper to us to bend a knee. These idols ultimately leave us empty, sagging under the weight of yet another thing that did not fulfill.

Jesus is the ultimate teacher when it comes to posture. He showed us we should kneel only before God. He knelt in prayer in the garden before his execution, pouring out his soul while affirming God’s sovereignty. If we listen to Jesus’s gentle corrections, he can fix the alignment of our heart for his kingdom and work in the world.

Lindsay Hufford is a writer, slow marathoner, home educator and mediocre knitter. Her favorite things include books, kombucha, kitchen dancing, natural wellness, Jesus, and nachos. She spends days with her handsome hubby, three adorable kids, a flock of hens, a runaway peahen, wandering barn cat, and rescue dog. Lindsay shares ways to live simply and love extravagantly at www.lindsayhufford.com.

Photograph © NeONBRAND, used with permission