I was reading in my free subscription to Self magazine the other day and this editorial caught my eye. It was interesting on so many levels… here’s the first quote that kept me reading:
Why would an activity that’s supposed to be noncompetitive and inward-focused turn people into such judgmental loons? My theory is that our culture has gotten so cutthroat that even spirituality has become competitive. And because many of us don’t belong to a tight-knit religious community, yoga has become a substitute for spirituality, a word thrown around like a medicine ball. Feeling spiritual used to mean more than simply treating one’s body like a temple; it suggested a call to social action, the determination to be a better person and, in some cases, to be closer to God.
the author kept me going by commenting on thoughts about 2 of my favorite topics – exercise / health and religion:
…too many yoga students in this country have taken a tiny piece of a wider Indian worldview, one that isn’t just about exercise, and turned it into a new kind of self-absorption. Exercise is not sacred, much as we want to pretend it is. Worse, some yogis have internalized only the most negative aspect of religion—the tendency to think that outsiders are bad and wrong. The dark side of faith is when it turns on others.
i think maybe those of us who treasure this thing called church might get an insight or two out of the article… http://www.self.com/fitness/2008/11/end-fitness-snobbery?currentPage=2
could the accusation be true of us as well? just as the author challenges that exercise is not sacred, is it possible that we have made elements of our religion sacred that might not ought to be? the way we celebrate Jesus… how we worship… the elements to our Sunday with other believers… these things are not our faith, they’re expressions of a faith in a God that is Holy.
just food for thought.