November 12, 2012
“Do you
not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you,
whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at
a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
1
Corinthians 6: 19-20
I have attended yoga classes five times
in my first week now. In that time I have learned two important things:
1.
I have relatively little control over
most of what my body does and doesn’t do
2.
I desire to have control over what my
body does and doesn’t do
Yoga to me is not a hokey-pokey,
touchy-feely, get-inside-your-body-mind-and-soul kind of thing. There is much
mysticism stemming from a very rooted history in the spiritual side of yoga. And
I hate to say it, but I disregard anything presented during class that is of a
spiritual nature. I am not there for the spiritual. I’ve already found that –
thank God!
I am there because I am learning the
most difficult lesson in life that I think I will ever learn. I’m no
theologian, so I won’t jump to the conclusion that this is THE lesson of Christ
and Christianity. But for me, the most difficult lesson in life is understanding
the nature of control.
What do I control?
The way I see it, I can control things
like:
·
What kind of food I will eat (and how
often!)
·
When I will wake up in the morning (or
afternoon!)
·
Whether I will shower (or not!)
·
Whether to wear the blue shirt or green
one (or no shirt at all!)
·
And other trivial things like that…
The way I see it, I can’t control
things like:
·
How warm it will be today (or cold!)
·
Whether the traffic light will stay
green long enough to make it (or will I have to run it!)
·
How many people die every day (or how
many are born!)
·
Whether my 2 year old nieces will stop
crying when I ask them to (or smile!)
·
And other trivial things like that…
Of course neither list is
comprehensive. In fact, I haven’t even represented general categories of life
that are and are not under my control… some of the bigger things, like:
·
Will I make enough money to take care
of myself and my future family?
·
Will I stay healthy enough to live a
long, pleasant life?
·
Will she love me?
·
Will the people I love the most in life
be blessed with their desires?
And even these questions are just broad
enough to open my eyes a little to the vast intricacies of living in the twenty
first century world.
But what I have learned, through yoga,
is that I can control one thing at a time.
I can control my breath, when the
burning takes hold of my legs.
I can control where my thoughts go,
when I am focused solely on holding a pose.
I can control my body and the degree to
which it will twist and turn and settle on my mat.
I can control my self.
That’s it.
Or can I?
When I read this verse I think about
the fact that I am called to live a higher life than those around me. And I
don’t mean this in a snooty way. I just mean what the Scripture says, which is
wholly true and wholly God’s word. I must look at myself differently. I must
treat my body differently. I must understand that self-control is a fruit of
the Spirit, and that what I experience in each yoga session – mind, body,
spirit – is practice for controlling the only thing in this world that I can
control: my self.
So, I’ll be back tomorrow… And I can
guarantee you that I won’t have a chance in the world of getting into the “bird-of-paradise”
pose. But I’m going to try! Because the way I see it, the more I try to control
myself, the less I will try to control everything else. And if somehow I can
turn my life into one giant yoga session, then perhaps I will never let go of
the ultimate truth: God is in control of everything.
So, tomorrow night I think I will try to
drop into the “wheel,” because that is the one pose that truly scares me to
attempt. And as I lean back, I’ll look for that hand of the instructor that won’t
let me fall and hurt myself, that pushes me and stretches me a little bit
further than I am comfortable.
Because the way I see it, I don’t want
to be comfortable anymore. I want to be alive…
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