SCL

Actually, I pray with my eyes open a lot. Probably just my weirdness, but I find it less distracting in praying to look at a couple of close-by objects than to think about keeping my eyes closed. And, for some reason, I can't keep my eyes closed without thinking about keeping my eyes closed. It's kinda like being aware of your tongue. Once you start thinking about it, it's hard to stop. So I just leave my eyes open, and hope I don't have to deal with too many "My kid says you don't close your eyes when we're praying" comments.

Uh this kinda odd, but where in the Bible does it say to close your eyes in prayer? It does say "lift holy hands in prayer", yet no one checks this.

Mo, i think he's joking on that one.

you are the best. I will admit I have and believe it or not, my HUSBAND has called me out for having my eyes opened…. *hisses under breath* "WHY are your eyes opened????" Um… with all due respect… HOW DO YOU KNOW UNLESS YOU OPENED YOURS!? This is where that whole submission thing gets sticky…

You know that little kid is going to grow up to yell "Jesus!" at concerts…

I love sitting in the back of the sanctuary where you can look around without being discovered when people raise their hands for the alter call. I know our pastor promises that no one is looking, but I want to see who is responding and rejoice with them.

Oh, and to make sure people really are raising their hands when I hear pastor say "In the middle section, I see you ma'am….yes sir, I see your hand." =)

I know in children's ministry that closing your eyes is the only way we can control the situation, otherwise there all kinds of distractions. However you would not ever convince them it is alright not to close your eyes when praying. I was resting & praying as lay on the couch the other day and was told by a child how to properly pray. I asked "do you only talk to your friend on your knees at night"? This was an opportunity for me to teach her, "Jesus is a friend of mine".

My husband once caught me reading the church bulletin during prayer. I got scolded for that one.

In the children's ministry I will ask, "Is there anyone here that has the courage to pray out loud".

Amuzing many times a 5 year old with a bad reputation of cussing, fighting and speaking inapropriately would volunteer.

Then 'do I have the courage to let this child pray'? So he would start by yelling, "Close your eyes & bow your head!" (Refusing to start until everyone was obedient.)Then would speak sweetly, from the heart. The Holy Spirit is simply amazing!

WV: scent

Of course if you're on staff at the church or the sound person you have the special dipensation / responsiblity to keep your eyes open… either to skitter about quickly doing something based on either the pastor or worship leaders jumbled hand signals or to intercept some of the other characters that are active during prayer time… like the slightly crazy, stinky homeless guy who mutters to himself and shows up during the prayer. At one church I worked at we had a guy like that and I used to crack up if I was up in the sound booth looking down because it was like watching the red sea parting as people moved away from sitting next to him. A related topic is people peeking during the altar call.

I pray with my eyes open usually. Even when I pray out loud. I'm used to it but it does have some advantages. For instance I was praying at a Bible Study on Tuesday. One of the prayer requests was for the health of one of the Lady's nieces. Except when I first heard it I thought she was talking about her sister Nissa (I have no idea what her sisters' names are so I just assumed.) When someone was spelling it in their prayer concerns list and asked how to spell it I realized it was niece and not Nissa, but for some reason sister stuck in my head so I prayed for the health of her sister Nissa . Since I pray with my eyes open I saw the biggest smile come on her face and realized after the prayer was over that I'd made that mistake.

This "eyes closed" is something that's comes solely from Christian Culture. Preeetty sure it's not in the bible

What other, more serious, stuff is just Christian Culture?

I've been an eye opener since high school. I never understood the point of closing the eyes and no one could give me an answer as to why. I had a friend during college who was also a looker when we caught each other we just smile and give a head nod.

I usually close my eyes so I'll be less distracted, but I often peek to check on my kids.

When I see others pray (out loud) with their eyes open, it always catches me off guard and for a split second I think, "Who are they talking to?" BG

In youth group it was a good time to see if the girl I liked opened her eyes to look at me. Never did my dreams come true though.

At our new church, the pastor does the whole, "Let's quietly stand up, with our eyes closed and our heads bowed, if you need to accept Christ, come up and we'll pray with you." Well my wife had her eyes open and made eye contact with the pastor and he repeated, "Everyone's eyes are closed now."

I think she would have rather saw that nose picker.

One sight that you left out was the person who treats the prayer time like the seventh-inning stretch (am I saying that right?), especially after an extended "everybody stand while singing" period. He or she shuffles their feet, rolls the head around the neck, moves shoulders in little circles, or even – the particularly bold – stretch their arms out up high or out to the side.

…okay, well I'm the one who usually does that.

Don't you get struck dead if you open your eyes during prayer time?

As a mother of young children with the typically 'overpacked' schedule, I've decided to pray with my eyes open. . .if I close them and I'm sitting that still, I'm going to sleep!

I'm the one scuttling up to the front to get my mic and get in position, take a deep breath, rerun the lyrics in my head. I have at times had to sprint to the stage because I got caught unaware that it was time to go back up after the sermon. Then I use the rest of the time to stop panting.

Can you imagine if westerners actually lived in a culture of "kings and queens" … would we, while our friends were making supplication before the throne, set up a mike stand or change clothes or run off to go to the bathroom? The prayer time should be the most important time of the service. Everything should stop. How did we lose this basic understanding?

I'm with the eyes open peeps. Mostly because I'm paranoid. I never sit with my back to the door. And closing my eyes in public? Hm, no thanks. I used to try to close my eyes during prayer and all I could think about was "Ahhhh my eyes are closed. I can't see." But I don't really look around. I'm aware of what's going on out there in my peripheral vision, but I'm usually looking at the pew in front of me.

Yes, I have openend my eyes during prayer. Here's the stuff I've noticed from a woman's perspective:

-wedgie picking
-cleavage shifting
-armpit sniffage
-necklace straightening
-hair fixing
-lipstick touch-up

I've also seen couples who prefer to grab butts instead of hands when praying.

Usually I just adjust my head covering.

"It's like seeing a unicorn fish floating about the reef. A creature so rare I had to make it up for the purpose of this paragraph."

Hilarious.

Also, I am the bathroom jail breaker. I used to get in trouble when I was little for asking to go to the bathroom during church. One Sunday my mom told me that if I could make it back before the prayer was over I could go – I took the chance and have continued this tradition ever since. What's fun to find is how many other people you run into on the way to the bathroom. It catches you off guard because you are all speedwalking and completely focused on getting to the bathroom. That causes a lot of wrecks. Very dangerous. We should probably all just pay attention to the prayer. Oops.

Ever since ya'll whined about my neckrubs, prayer time is when I get one (any prayer time will do, all of them is best) since it shouldn't be distracting to you because your eyes are supposed to be closed!

My least favorite is the young couple who feels this is the time for some good old-fashioned "necking", or "canoodling" if you will. The second the heads bow these people are all over each other like their plane is going down. Come on folks, have the decency to escape off to the youth group closet like everyone else, people are watching!

are you kidding me? as a Liturgy Quaterback (worship leader), prayer time is the perfect opportunity to call an 'audible' (change the song set list, or shorten a song bc the baby dedications went too long) or move into place so that when everyone looks up, I have magically appeared at the front of the stage…if everyone has their eyes open, it would be like watching David Blaine from behind…all the magic of worship leading would be gone…

Sammy Boy,
thanks….now I can't stop obsessing about my tongue…here's my revenge…think about the "Chariots Of Fire" theme song…good look getting that out of your head…

Nothing to do with the blog but….

When are we going to vote on the top 5 comments for the "Breaking the Chain" chapter?

I'm definitely in the "nobody should move under the cover of prayer" camp. I'd much rather sacrifice the appearance of seamless transitions for the knowledge that the ENTIRE church body is uniting in prayer. When we are being called as a congregation to pray, I don't think it's appropriate for some to be considered "above all that" just because they happen to play an instrument.

But yes, I have snuck a peek during prayers, just to see what else is happening…so far, no interesting catches

It fascinates me that "hand talkers" talk with there hands while they are praying.

Or what about the sound of the communion cups being passed to the aisles during prayer because people can't seem to hold onto them until afterwards?

Reading this post, I couldn't help but hear Sebastion from The Little Mermaid singing – "Under the prayer, Under the PRAYER!… Open your eyes, You'll see a suprise, No one will care!"

Sorry, I have little kids… who watch a lot of Disney movies.

Cute post Every now and then, I need to keep my eyes open to keep from nodding off to sleep!

I work in prison ministry and we are strongly encouraged NOT to close our eyes in prayer, or worship or anything.
Just sayin'.

wow kinda sad…

Would we act like this when speaking to anyone else, but God Almighty giver of life or death, eternal life or eternal damnation?

I guess this reflects the disrespect we have for God.

Yes i know it was supposed to be funny, it just got unfunny.

It is not the eyes open or shut but all the other stuff that apparantly goes on "when no one is looking". Is whatever else more important than prayer, seeking God, eternal choices being made?

Akin to this is the way God's or Jesus' name is used in anger, as a joke or exclamation point.

Nope i'm not traditional or 'king james only' polyester wearer. I do believe the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

I guess what was meant to be funny just opened my eyes.

I am on the tech crew at our church, and most of the time, we're all praying and the worship team on stage is praying. I don't think most of the time they're moving around up there, unless it is to leave the stage. But sometimes I am called on to change what's on the screens or get a video ready to play, or change the lighting scheme, so I'm not praying back there in the booth. Sometimes, if things are going badly, the worship pastor will take time during the prayer to mouth at us what he wants, but this is pretty rare. I think for the most part, we take corporate prayer seriously.

Great post, Jon. I do look around sometimes when everyone is praying–it does feel like you're getting away with something!

I've opened my eyes during a visiting evangelist's altar call. He was saying that people were raising their hands "all over the church" to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. I quickly opened my eyes – happy for all the salvations – only to see just ONE person with their hand up. That's a bit different from what the evangelist said. Why would he lie about the number of salvations – to nudge others into thinking they wouldn't be the only ones raising their hands? SO wrong!

"Mom! Bart opened his eyes during the blessing"
"Mom! Lisa Ate a green bean during the blessing"
Lisa: "How do you know if you didn't open your eyes?

I think it's just natural to close ones eyes when praying or preparing for meditation. It removes external stiumulus and is more conducive to concentration. Distraction comes more easily when eyes are opened. People from almost all religions that I've seen close their eyes during prayers and meditation, it's not unique to Christianity.

I have my eyes open during prayer at church all the time. Nothing wrong with that. I have my eyes closed during the sermon either to give more attention to what is being said, or, if what is being said is rather turgid, to doze. Nothing wrong with that, either.

I'm the mother of that noisy little kid, who also shrieks "Cwacker! Cwacker!" as the communion bread is passed, claps loudly at the END of every song, and shouts "AMEN!" at the end of every prayer. And this all happens in the 15 minutes before the kids are dismissed for Children's Church.

I do this all the time! You caught me!
I usually just stare at my hands or the floor. There are some Sundays where I know if I keep my eyes closed during the prayer, I'll fall asleep. I've acutally used prayer time as an opportunity to take mini-naps.

I agree with Rebecca. That's the best time to open your eyes. Its also kinda wrong so I only do it when I'm really caught up on my praying. Anyhow, I've seen many-a pastors acknowledge people who aren't raising their hands.

I usually leave my eyes open during prayer time, unless someone catches me being open eyed. Then I close them really fast, just like you suggested. I don't look around very often though but have a couple times examined others prayer habits. Our church may not have a nose picker guy, I haven't found him if we do. We have several nose blowers into cloth hankies though. And then they shove them back in their pocket, contents and all. I've seen people, men and women both, use prayer time to remove wedgies too.

If we're really going to obey the scriptures, we should be praying without ceasing.
And if we close our eyes to pray, we are going to bump into a lot of things.
Just sayin'

wv: aciza
def: strategic eyesight

"Jon, your eyes were open during prayer."
"How do you know?"
"Aciza."

… I forgot one of the best stories I've heard of things happening while the prayer was going on. One of the local pastors was saying he was praying at the beginning of the service. He was sitting on a stool with his eyes closed. Unfortunately, so were the eyes of all the ushers… because some nut case guy walked right up to the front of the church and punched him right in the face hard enough to knock him off the stool. He talked about how surreal it all was and now makes sure at least the chosen few keep their eyes open all the time. Kids don't try that at home. I realize these days the seriousness of that kind of thing with the shootings and all… but at the time all of us at the pastor's confrence could relate.

Just this Sunday I opened my eyes during prayer for some reason and caught my dad trying to pry some melted gum out of his jacket pocket.

I have yet to see it, but apparently there is a "Baptist Manual" that outranks the Bible.

The Baptist Manual tells us to pray "with every head bowed and every eye closed" which must be why most Baptist preachers say that dumb line during the closing prayer/alter call. I don't know what the ramifications are if you don't. I guess I'll find out when I die, because I talk to God a lot with my head tilted up and my eyes wide open.

Unicorn fish are real! http://www.pbase.com/ronsc/image/55221355

Mo-
Well said.

I have opened my eyes more than once and look at the ground but honestly I don't get up or do anything like that. Because it's a special moment when my pastor is giving people the opportunity to follow Christ. We do that every week and let me tell you…it NEVER gets old. People who once didn't have a clue who Jesus is to them just accepted Him to be their Savior and Best Friend. I know this is a light hearted and funny post and I'm all for that. But let's make sure that we don't begin take prayer light heartedly. Because people who are praying are praying about something that is a HUGE deal to them. It may for a loved one or friend, or something their struggling with, or as mentioned earlier their salvation and we should make every effort to stand with them in that. I'll get off my soap box now