It’s not always about you. I struggled for years with the whole idea of yoga because of the spiritual implications. “Was practicing yoga going to somehow slap my God in the face because of its false teachings and false worship?,” I wondered. I talked to many spiritual leaders that I trusted and never really got a definitive answer. I’ve been doing Piyo almost daily for the last 5 months so I am familiar with a lot of the yoga poses. My YMCA doesn’t offer Piyo so today I decided to try out a yoga class. Some of the poses were the same but they don’t move. In Piyo, we drop into a plank and move, either our legs or our arms or we do pushups. Today we just held the plank for what felt like forever. It was definitely more challenging than I anticipated. But I didn’t feel any of my beliefs about God or my worship practices threatened in anyway. I did, however, fell like a pretzel much of the time.
What led me to the yoga class is probably not as significant as my having gone. I don’t believe that God, as a general rule, wants to plan our agendas or even hopes that we do anything specific each day. I don’t wait around and see if He is going to direct me in some way or another or tell me what I am suppose to do. What I do believe is that He knows what I am going to do and then allows me opportunities to be part of something amazing He wants to do through it. Today’s opportunity came after I left the Y and was heading home.
I live 28 miles from the Y, so getting there is a purposeful effort and I decided while I was there I’d gather some pokie balls. If you are not familiar with what that means, it is part of a game you play on your smart phone called, Pokemon Go. Until today, I thought I was the only person my age playing the game. The game creates pokie stops at real places, especially landmarks and church buildings. You must physically go to this real place to collect pokie balls which you use to catch pokemon creatures that spring up just about everywhere. My little town only has a few pokie stops, one at the post office, one at the fire station, and two at one of the churches in town. But the town where I drive to the YMCA, has pokie stops and gyms (a place where pokemon battle each other) on just about every corner.
I decided to make a few stops on the way out of town to collect some pokie balls I could use at home later. I went down a side road where I usually park to interact with the poke stop and a car was park in my spot. So being a side road without any other cars, I drove by the car really slow and collected my items and drove around the block to go to another known pokie stop, the town statue and small park. I knew exactly where to park to be in interactive range of three stops, one at a pokie gym. When I got around the block, the same car that I met at the church was parked near the gate of the park.
“Wow,” I thought, “She must be playing pokemon go but naw, she is at least my age.”
I pulled in front of her and parked where I knew I could interact with all three stops. After a few minutes, she pulled around me and parked again and I knew exactly what she was doing. She had to move in order to interact with the pokie gym. I was looking at my phone trying to capture a few pokemon when I heard a tap at my window. I looked up and she was holding up her phone so I could see she was playing pokemon go and we both laughed. So now I am part of a raid group in this little town where I go to the Y to do yoga.
People think games are a waste of time and sometimes like me, we are afraid of stepping out and trying new things because like I did with yoga, we have legalistic strongholds in our history that keep us from getting out and really taking advantage of the opportunities God has for us. It’s not about whether I should go to yoga or go meet people at pokie stops, it’s just about going. You go and God will give you the opportunities.
My new friend is going through a lot right now. She is fighting for her very life, which explains why she wasn’t too shy about tapping on my window and making a new friend. Her kids, who started her playing pokemon live far away and ironically can’t be here to battle with her. So God has brought this crazy group of women together to battle pokemon bosses and laugh and enjoy each other’s company as long as He chooses to bless us with days. He brought us together face to face to face the uncertainty of our days and stand by each other as we battle real life demons, whether they are strongholds that steal our joy or diseases that threaten our life.
Who are you facing your battles with? You don’t have to face them alone. Knock on someone’s window and ask them to join you. You may be just the battle buddy they have been waiting for.
I just love how Beth Moore describes in her podcast, El Shaddai, the face to face meet up with God and Abram in Genesis 17:1; “When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘I am the Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.'” Genesis 17:1. When you dig into the Hebrew you find walk before me means to be in presence with or face to face with. I can imagine being with God face to face, maybe sitting across from the table in a booth at my favorite restaurant or standing face to face having a dialogue as I describe my victories and my losses with him. Some other wonderful descriptions out of Strongs definitions include walk along with or walk up to. These are all words that describe hanging out together, face to face, with the Almighty.
The hebrew for the words translated in the NIV as ‘be blamelesss’ are ‘be complete’ or ‘whole’. The Lord says, “I Am the Almighty, walk up to me and be complete.” And of course, Abram was made complete at the age of 99. It was then that he became the father of many nations. I am sure he didn’t believe it was possible at his age but when God says, “Walk with me,” impossible things cease to exist because all things are possible. If you are facing battles that seem impossible, accept the Lord’s invitation to walk with him and be made complete. If you’re feeling lonely or afraid, tap on a window and make a new friend. Step outside your comfort zone and venture out, to a yoga class or a pokie gym, or wherever you can challenge your strongholds and God can set you free in ways you can’t even imagine!!