I am NOT defensive!

Good morning guys,

TGIF! And also, thank God its a long weekend! I have a full and exciting weekend ahead of me, and I can't wait!

I started this morning, the way I start almost every morning...reading my blogs. I think I'm subscribed to about 30 :) It's just so interesting to start the day reading about other people's days and being inspired/convicted/encouraged/etc.

This morning I came across an interesting article. A pastor in the States recently posted an article about yoga and its spiritual foundations, concluding that Christians should not practice yoga. He made some very good arguments, and quoted a few experts (dedicated practicers- is that a word?) of yoga.

Yesterday, Yahoo posted his article on their site, and caused a huge stir among Christians. A lot of people were upset, and hundreds emailed him to tell him that. Today, he talked about this upset, and defended his article. He said "We are in worse shape than we thought. I have heard from a myriad of souls who have called me insane, incompetent, stupid, vile, fundamentalist, and perverted. Some others are best left unrepeated. These souls claim to be Christian, but offer no biblical argument nor do they even acknowledge the basic fact that yoga, as a spiritual practice, runs directly counter to the spiritual counsel of the Bible. "

The whole thing got me thinking...when someone confronts you about an issue incompatible with you faith, why is our first reaction always defensiveness? We quickly speak up to defend ourselves and our actions, even if it means insulting the person who is just trying to help.

As Christians, shouldn't we be seeking to grow and become more holy? And shouldn't we be willing to do so at any cost? Even if it means giving up something we love? So by that logic, our initial reaction shouldn't be to think of ways to justify ourselves, but to stop and seriously consider whether what we're doing is a sin, and might be keeping us from growing closer to God.

If after considering this seriously we still believe our actions are holy, then we can come up with real, Biblical reasons for continuing with them. And our response will be loving, not nasty and ignorant.

Sorry for preaching. This message is as much for me, as for those reading. My devotions have been focusing on pride this last week, and it really has been thinking about pride in my own life. A few years ago, I was considering practicing yoga myself. But before I started, I decided to do the research to see if it could be reconciled with my faith. I decided it couldn't. But if I hadn't done that research and now regularly practiced yoga, I wonder how I would have responded to that argument. Defensively? Or with the intention to grow?