Hope for when you're in a pit

There is a story of a donkey who stumbled and fell into a pit. His owner comes along to rescue it, but the task is impossible. To put it out of its misery, the farmer called upon his friends to help him bury it alive. However, every time they heaped another shovel of dirt on this little donkey, he'd just shake it off, and step up on the fallen pile of dirt. Shake it off, step up, shake it off, step up. Finally he walked out of his imprisonment on level ground. As time passed, the very thing that should have buried the donkey became his way to freedom.

"No pit is too deep that He is not deeper still." ~Corrie ten Boom

Psalm 40

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

¹ I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
² He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
³ He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
and put their trust in him.

Spiritual Truths in Kung Fu Panda

Today I went to yoga and watched Kung Fu Panda.

There are great spiritual principles to be gleaned from Kung Fu Panda.

My dad has been talking about it for a long time now. He always says how much he loved the movie. He quotes, "Panda, we do not wash our pits in the pool of sacred tears."

And after yoga today I spoke to a college student. It was her first time. She said she loved the spiritual teachings. Indeed, I have been encouraged by yoga. Today we did dancer, a balancing pose where you stand on one foot and then pull your other leg behind you while you extend the opposite arm forward. You sort of end up looking like a bow and arrow.

I was doing the pose just fine, all balanced with a slight tip forward. But then I decided to try and push myself to try and tip forward more. I got off balance and had to drop my foot and start over again. As I wobbled it was as if God posed the question, "Why do you push yourself to the point of instability?"

What does Kung Fu Panda have to do with yoga? To me it is the realization that the Christian Church is so scared of spirituality that it has relegated all things "spiritual" to New Age philosophy and Eastern religions. In order to preserve doctrine, mainly mainline branches have shunned the movement of the Holy Spirit and have labeled any display of power, miracles, and even spiritual gifts, as counterfeit and disruptive.

I think this is sad. This means that people hungry for rightful spiritual influence are left to go to Eastern philosophy.

I am happy to let the Spirit move and to find encouragement from Him wherever I find it. Yoga has reminded me to remain present in the moment, to honor myself and not to compete. To accept my best and be content with it. Kung Fu Panda reminded me to believe and to be ok with not being in control.

I know we cannot deny the influence of sin in our lives, and the Church must address it, but I would really like for the teaching of the Church to get back to things that more spiritual practices have taken up in our absence- things such as the teaching of personal empowerment through inner spirituality and truth. In the meantime I'm going to appreciate it when I see it- animated or no!

My thoughts on Yoga

I have been thinking that it will be sad to neglect my blog as I am studying for Bar Exam #2. I could have done more today, but it is Saturday, and it is hard to convince my brain that I should be cramming law into it today. Weekends are weekends.

Today I am going to write about yoga. I really like yoga. I don't like what I dub 'crazy yoga'- of which there are many varieties. This is yoga where you beat your stomach with others beating their stomachs while counting to 10 for 5 mins. This is supposed to stir up energy or something. I call it crazy. Or yoga where you lay down for 30 mins in the dark and think about every part of your body and then when you finally sit up you just snort air out of your nostrils. I don't have time for that. I need exercise. I need to relax. I can lay down and think about my body in my own bed while I am about to fall asleep and am not needing exercise.

Anyway, doing yoga as a Christian has gotten me in trouble. I got kicked out of a ministry for it because the person in charge of the ministry was so against it. She thought that there was no separating the exercise from the spiritual practice.

A lot of Christians feel this way. They don't think that it is possible to engage in the exercise without inherently immersing yourself in the spiritual element. I agree that if you are insecure in your faith and you go in blindly without the awareness that there is a spiritual component to it, you may get off course into some spiritual philosophy that is not in agreement with the Bible. But I find it ridiculous to assert (sorry, my mind is still in legalese here) that there are certain things that cannot be separated from their symbolism. If that is what Christians believe then they should not have a Christmas tree any more because the Christmas tree is a pagan symbol.

So basically I try to avoid crazy yoga and look for yoga that is minimally spiritual. A few Oms are ok, but don't start getting into a treatise on yogic philosophy. As aforementioned, I'm here to release tension (because law school has turned me into Type A) and exercise.

I found this great special at a studio nearby. It as $40 for unlimited classes for an entire month. You can't beat that. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to screen the place for craziness beforehand. I decided the deal was worth taking a chance. I got a report from a friend that it was a legit place. So I was relieved.

But then I go in and there is this huge podium of Ganesh at the front of the studio, with a background of Buddha, and another Hindu god. I do not want to stare at Ganesh for the entirety of my yoga class. I am thinking this may disrupt the peace I have. And then I sensed that God wanted me to stay. I need not be threatened by the presence of these figures. Indeed I felt like Jesus was not threatened by them. I felt like I could bring the presence of Jesus into the studio. And I said a nice prayer for everyone there. That was that.

I once tried out a free yoga class put on by this non-denom church. I was excited. I was so stressed out and I was grateful for free yoga. But it was so lame. In the attempt to make the yoga "Christian" the instructor started the relaxation time by reading the first chapter of John. Do you know how long it takes to read an entire chapter out loud? Like 5 mins. So I am trying to relax and instead am getting annoyed and am just wanting her to stop reading Scripture. Seriously, this is something ridiculous that Christians do. God can be present in an activity without adding something to make it overtly Christian. That was the first and last time I went to "Christian" yoga.

After my pagan yoga I got to talk to the teacher and this other guy I had been in 2 classes with. I shared with them a little about my healing classes. I asked about their yoga practice. The one guy from class had a Sanskrit name and everything. I started talking to him because he mentioned Osho, this meditation guru I became familiar with when I was in Burma. I told him I had the opportunity to walk around Osho's meditation center in India.

I left thinking that if as Christians we are so put off by the practice of other people's religion, how in the world do we ever expect to engage people? Are we that easily tainted by being in the presence of an icon we find idolatrous? If that is the case then our faith has very little influence or power behind it.

Now I'm not going to go seek out the Satan worshipers to infiltrate their meeting to prove that my God is more powerful. No reason to needlessly seek out darkness just to prove the light is stronger. But I think it's time to stop disengaging situations where another religion is prominent. If that is how Christians want to focus their efforts, then you need not wonder why we have a limited impact on the culture around us.

So I'm going to keep going to yoga!