“The yoga postures and breath are tools to rebuild and transform ourselves. The goal is not to tie ourselves in knots – we’re already tied in knots. The aim is to untie the knots in our heart. The aim is to unite with the ultimate, loving, and peaceful power in the universe.” Max Strom, Yoga Teacher
Laurel finally convinced me to try yoga three years ago, and while I can’t practice it nearly as much as she does, or I’d like, I do practice it as much as I possibly can. After I got past my initial “Type A” attempt at yoga where I strived to do every posture perfectly, I soon settled in to the fact, I just can’t do it, my body is way too tight and inflexible, and I’m not strong enough or have good enough balance to do many of the postures. I soon grew to acceptance of my physical limitations, and that is when my true yoga practice began. I started growing and learning through the mental and spiritual aspects of yoga, and my practice grew deeper, I started getting the true benefit from yoga.
What I was missing was what Max Strom noted above, yoga is a whole lot more than an exercise routine. The two studios that Laurel and I have practiced at together have emphasized the true nature of yoga. What has been interesting for me is at times when Laurel and I are traveling, and we go to a yoga studio somewhere else, you often find yourself in the middle of “gym yoga”. In many cases, we have Americanized yoga into a workout routine instead of what it is. We take yoga postures, we keep those intact, but everything else about the routine is thrown to the side. No quiet, no stillness, no connecting with the breath. We sweat our way through Down Dog, Warrior 2, Pyramid and Planking, and we think we’ve done yoga. But it’s really only a gym workout with some yoga postures thrown in.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?Just as we have bastardized the beautiful practice of yoga to meet our idea of what it should be, rather than what it is, we have done the same thing with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have taken an incredibly beautiful story of the ultimate sacrifice, suffering a humiliating and painful death, Jesus giving up his life for us, and made it into some sort of Hollywood drama or World Wrestling match where good crushes evil.
While the gospel story tells us about what Jesus did, his teachings, his radical opposition to the religious hierarchy, his amazing love for the least of us, his ugly, horrible death that he suffered for us, it never said that our victory would come on this earth, the victory is eternal life, and our reward will come in Heaven. We are not satisfied with that outcome, we have determined that we deserve something more. So we’ve changed the narrative.
While the gospel is clear, our reward is not on earth, it’s in Heaven, we have Americanized it and created concepts such as the “Prosperity Gospel” where God really wants us to have all the things we want on earth, God wants us to live a rich and fruitful life. Some of the key concepts of the Prosperity Gospel are:
• Status as the Righteousness of God – We have been confirmed as righteous, and we can stand before God as if we haven’t sinned.
• Material Prosperity – Material possessions and political influence are signs of divine favor.
• Freedom from Sickness and Disease – These are weaknesses that believers will not suffer with since they are protected by God.
• The Divine Economy – the more you give to the church, the more you will receive back, you will be rewarded financially by God for your giving.
Again, if you read what Jesus said about “take up your cross and follow me”, he never said it would be a pleasant journey here on earth, and I think the stories of the disciples can attest to that. They suffered greatly for their love and devotion to Jesus, and most suffered brutal and painful deaths, similar to Jesus.
“Christians should never think they honor the greater truth they find in Jesus Christ by ignoring truths they found elsewhere.” William Sloan Coffin, former pastor of the Riverside Church in New York
But we’re not even happy with our misconception that following Jesus will lead to wealth, prosperity and an abundance of health on earth, we will only be happy if those we don’t like or disagree with are punished as well. Whether it’s Muslims or any religion other than Christianity, we want to ensure they are punished for not following Jesus. The LGBTQ community is ostracized and told they are doomed to Hell for their sins. We are not willing to grant grace to those we disagree with, even though Jesus taught us to grant grace to everyone, including, and especially, our enemies. As I’ve noted before, we like to use the Bible as our favorite weapon of choice.
“We are not only permitted to enter respectful dialogue with people of other faiths but obligated to listen with respect and to learn the truth they know. And in our evangelism, we are not to argue the superiority of our religion and the exclusivism of our truth but to share what we have come to believe and trust and to receive the same from the other.” Presbyterian theologian Shirley Guthrie
Over the past several years, I’ve experienced and witnessed painful moments when we have chosen to show the superiority of our Christianity over other forms of religion (for once, I’ll spare you all my disdain for false prophets such as Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr.). We have a need to convert those who are not worshipping the way we would choose, and we have a need to show how superior we are. Just a few anecdotal highlights I’ve experienced over the last few years:
• A dear friend, Sharon Klein, was dying of cancer a few years ago. Sharon was a devout Jew. As Sharon was on her death bed, some friends from our former company came over to try to convert her to Christianity before she died to save her soul. As you can imagine, it didn’t go well.
• At one of my former churches, it was a kind of “notch in the belt” to see how many youth we could convert to Christianity or to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. While on the surface, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea, the problem was it was such a “numbers” game. How many youth did we get to accept Jesus? We didn’t care about the quality, how devoted, how committed, it was all about, how many? It became too much like corporate goals and objectives, a victory and an advertisement for how good a church we were.
• I recently listened to a young lady talk about growing up in suburban Atlanta, and how difficult it was for her in high school because she wasn’t Christian. People would question her, ask her, you’re white, living in the suburbs of Atlanta, how can you possibly not be a Christian? And that is what I’ve experienced in the south, much more than the north, it’s like there is something wrong with you if you aren’t Christian here, particularly if you are white.
• I love to listen to contemporary Christian music, and one song I love is “Our God” by Chris Tomlin. What has really disturbed me about this song is what many of us have turned it into. Now, I could be completely wrong, maybe Mr. Tomlin’s intention was for it to be an anthem espousing that our God was greater than any other God, but I hope that is not the case, I hope he is singing to the glory of God. I’ve seen so many people sing this song in church like it’s a war song or a patriotic song, similar to singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” or “America the Beautiful”. They will sing loud, sing proud, “Our God is greater, our God is stronger”. I guess I chose to find the beauty in the song, as a song of praise.
“And it will not be the ones we expect who will be there, but the ones that God expects. Not the ones we would have chosen, but the ones God has chosen. Nothing like we thought, but more, so much more than we ever expected. Thanks be to God” The Reverend Thomas D. York
We’ve made religion into a competition, and we are not satisfied with the story as it’s presented. We are not satisfied with the kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus promised, we want more, we want the kingdom on earth, but even worse, we want it at the cost of anyone who we don’t deem to be worthy. So much of our struggles, our battles, our concern lies in the idea of who gets into Heaven. And so much of it is about I’m getting in, but you, and you, and you aren’t, because of who you are or what you do. We’ve built Heaven into an exclusive club for only those of us who truly deserve it.
I have no idea who is getting into Heaven. God knows, if it’s based on merit, none of us. I firmly believe I will, but it has absolutely nothing to do with me, but it has everything to do with the love of God, and the grace and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And I’m not willing to say who doesn’t get into Heaven and why they don’t get in. Because if I can find a reason for someone not to get in, I can surely find a reason that I shouldn’t get in. Again, it has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with God and Jesus Christ.
Have I painted a very broad brush of religion in America? Heavens, yes! And I know, I’ve painted too broad a brush, but I think collectively we’ve lost sight of what Jesus taught us. I think if we re-read the Gospel story and truly embraced it, we would change a lot of things about how we lead our lives. And yes, I very much include me in that statement.
In closing, some wonderful words from Frederick Buechner in “Beyond Words”, who says it all so much better than me:
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me”
He didn’t say that any particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that He was.
“I am the road, also the truth, also the life. No one gets to the Father apart from Me”
He didn’t say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you could “get to the Father.” He said that it was only by Him – by living, participating in, being caught up by the way of life that He embodied, that was His way.
Thus it is possible to be on Christ’s way and with His mark upon you without ever having heard of Christ, and for that reason it is possible to be on your way to God though maybe you don’t even believe in God.
