I thought it would be appropriate to share the letter as my last write 31 days post this year. I am so grateful to have been able to share my heart, my practice, and my faith over this month, and I hope you enjoy the letter.
Dear Pastor John,
First off, I would like to thank you for your dedication to
the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for your preaching, writing,
speaking, and online ministry. You have been behind the production of
invaluable resources for the modern church and have helped countless
individuals, churches, and ministries grow in their faith and Christian
maturity.
That being said, in an “Ask Pastor John” podcast this
summer, you answered a question as to whether or not yoga is sinful. As a
nearly life long Christian who has been practicing yoga daily for just about
ten months now, I was offended by the under-researched and judgmental response
you gave. You, by your own admission, know little about yoga and have done
little research, and based on the podcast, I can only assume you have never
actually done yoga, much less dedicated yourself to a consistent practice. On
the other hand, I wrestled with the issue for several years before finally
taking a class in January of this year. I continued to study the Bible and seek
the Lord in prayer before landing where I am today: Yoga is extraordinary
beneficial to my pursuit of knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ my
Savior.
I would like to answer the questions you provided as they
relate to my practice of yoga and my faith in the God of the Bible. In your
podcast, you challenged Christians not to ask, “What is wrong with it?, but
rather:
“Will it make me more Christ like?” Compassionate.
Self-Sacrificing. Others-centered. Loving. Peaceful. Forgiving. Dependent on
God the Father. When I think of what it means to be like Jesus, these are just
a few of the things that come to mind. I take a yoga class every day, if not
more. I quiet my busy mind down, and I move my body into the poses most people
think of when they think of yoga.
Sitting, stretching, moving and breathing, helps me ground myself down.
Often, I set an intention, or as you put it in your podcast, a “mantra”. It is
almost always a verse or an attribute of God. Sometimes it is one of the words
or phrases I listed above, or a reflection thereof. Christian meditation is a
respected spiritual discipline; why can’t it be a moving meditation? Why can’t
I do Humble Warrior and remember the One who “humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8)? Why
is it a minimalist pursuit of holiness for me to rest in child’s pose and feel
my stress and anxiety melt away, as Christ taught in Luke 12? And why is it so
wrong for me to find comfort in deep hip openers and lean into the God who
“leads me beside still waters” and “restores my soul” (Psalm 23). I finish
class in savasana, corpse pose, the final resting posture and remember the God
who rested, following the command, “Whoever has entered God’s rest has also
rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:19).
“Will it make me more devoted to Jesus?” The short answer is
of course, yes. Yoga makes me so thankful for my salvation, for my life, for
every breath. It shows me who I am, and when I see who I am, poor and needy, I
see the tremendous gift I have in Jesus that much more clearly. Paul preached
in Athens, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of
heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by
human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all
mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24-25). I fully believe that
when a Christian knows what he has received in the gospel, he is empowered by
the Holy Spirit to serve the God who saved him with a beautiful, profound zeal.
I often leave class singing the hymn, “My Jesus I Love Thee”, because my
practice helps me to love Jesus more today than I did the day before.
“Will I be more powerful and full of the Holy Spirit?” To be
honest, I am not entirely clear as to what this question means. If you are in
Christ, you have full and unfettered access to God by the power of the Holy
Spirit dwelling inside of you. I don’t understand how it can be any more or any
less than that. The Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus (John 15:26), and
anything that guides me into the presence of God is evidence, to me, of His
work in my heart. And yes, yoga does that for me.
“Will I be more effective in prayer because of it?” Sometimes,
when it is time for class, I am tired and I’m not sure I feel like practicing
that day. But I have never regretted going to my mat. I always come away feel
more alive, more full, and more grateful. This has encouraged my prayer life in
ways I never expected. Although I love prayer, believe in its power, and
practice it regularly, I am human. It is not always my first response, and is
not always what I feel like doing in the moment. But I know for a fact that God
honors obedience. He delights to hear from us. And I have found that my prayer
life is strengthened as I pursue the Lord with a clear heart and sound mind,
something I gain from yoga.
“Will it make me more bold in witness or weaken me?” I
believe it is now appropriate to say that I live in Seattle. Seattle is one of
the most unchurched cities in North America. The pastor of my local church once
listed a number of statistics that help demonstrate how Seattle is not unlike
Nineveh as he preached what it means to bring the gospel to the city. My church
has encouraged and empowered me to meet my city with deep love, compassion, and
the glory of the gospel. In order to love my city, I have to actually be part
of it. In order to be a witness for Jesus, I have to go where Christ is not
known. Why can’t that be a yoga studio? My pastor often says that each of us
have people in our lives that we can witness to that he can’t reach. Jesus met
me when I was not at all worthy of Him. There are millions of ways to bring
that gift to others, and one of them might just be through the community that
forms at a yoga studio, where people watch each other struggle and rejoice and
learn new things every day.
“Will it help me be spiritually discerning of the ways of
Satan in the world and will it help me lay up treasures in heaven?” Anything
that shows you who God is will also show you who God is not. By seeing Jesus
clearly, you also see Satan clearly. My next response will delve into more
detail as to how yoga helps reveal God to me, but suffice it for now to say
that a biblical worldview is honed with practice. There are times when an
instructor might say something that directly conflicts with Scripture. But the
more I meet the Jesus who loved the world, the forces organized against Him,
that He died to redeem them, the more I want to live in this world, pointing to
Him. I immerse myself in the joys of memorizing the Word of God and I am able
to meditate on them as I move and breath and live the beautiful life I have in
Jesus, free forever from the prince of this world.
“Will it help me find joy in God and all that he is for me
in Jesus?” I have tears in my eyes as I read this question; because I know how
precious my Jesus is to me, and how that preciousness has only been
strengthened through my practice of yoga. I recently completed an online blog
challenge called Write 31 Days, where writers make the commitment to write on a
topic of their choice for 31 days. I wrote on how I pursue God in my practice
of yoga. The following is an excerpt from that series, demonstrating how God
chose to heal me of my eating disorder once and for all by meeting me on a yoga
mat.
“For whatever reason, as I sat in my fourth class of the day, I
remembered back to a few months ago, when I realized that when I was in class,
on my mat, all my eating disorder thoughts just stopped. I was finally able to
be still and meditate on God's faithfulness, His truth, His trustworthiness,
His grace, His light, His greatness, His satisfaction. That's the whole reason
I started taking class more than once a day - because Jesus met me on my mat,
and it was there He chose to loose my chains and set this captive free. It's
now been just over two months since I've had an ED thought or behavior. I am
finally starting to believe that I can be free of him FOREVER. And that's the most
precious thing in the world to me, to know that when the Son of man sets me
free, I am free indeed (John 8:38). And although I pray that ED and I are done
for good, I also pray that I never forget what it was like to be enslaved.
Because remembering my deep captivity reminds me of the even greater Savior who
rescued me.”
If you have not had an eating disorder, you simply do not know what it is
like. You don’t have time to love your neighbor when you are working out five
or six times a day on an apple and a dozen cups of coffee. Your prayer life is
not strong when all you can hear are the lies of the enemy, deep, dark and
relentless. When you spend hours in any given day deliberating how many bites
of a cupcake you might be able to take and how long you will have to run to
make up for it or how hard it might be to throw it up, you don’t have a lot of
time to follow John Owen’s advice to “Think greatly of the greatness of God” (The Glory of Christ). God used yoga to
show me Himself as the Creator of my body, the sustainer of my life, the
fullness of my joy, the light of my world, the bread and water to my hungry and
thirsty soul, and has shown me that I was made for more than disordered eating
and compulsive exercise. I was made in His image, to glorify Him and enjoy Him
forever. I am forever His, and nothing can separate me from His love in Christ
Jesus.
I have seen yoga only enhance my pursuit of personal holiness and add
vibrancy, depth and maturity to my relationship with Jesus. I have always held
my practice with open hands, grateful for the gift that it is, and constantly
checking myself to see if it is something that is distracting me from
authentic, biblical spirituality and needs to be surrendered. Today, I praise
Jesus for His rescue of my soul, and for drawing me deeper into His presence
through the practice of yoga. I understand that yoga may not be for every
Christian, but for me, it is as much of a spiritual practice as singing worship
songs on my guitar or writing my reflections on my daily Bible reading. It
shows me beautiful things about my Jesus and myself and helps me lean on Him
and grow in my faith every day. I have no idea how any of this demonstrates a
minimalist approach to holiness, and I hope that this letter broadens your
perspective as to how the Lord can work in the life of the believer.
Grace to you,
Kate Finman
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined
to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the
miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new
song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put
their trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:1-3
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