Practice

Psalm 119:89-104

I have practiced yoga with some regularity since I was seventeen years old. Of course, over the many life changes, moves, and caprices of my personality and waning commitment, there have been periods of time where I don't practice yoga for a while, sometimes a month or two. During these times, I become more physically, emotionally, and spiritually distant. I tend to eat mindlessly, be lethargic and irritable, and generally start to teeter toward depression. And so I've learned, over these 13 years of yoga growth, to be as consistent as I can; practice begets practice. It is much the same with my Christian spiritual practices: they take practice! I can't ignore God, my Bible, and my writing for a very long period of time, or I feel detached. From God, from Life, from Love. Faith takes practice. It has taken me a long time to figure this out. But I am nothing if not a slow learner.

That isn't to say that while my attention is averted, God's is as well. The Holy Spirit doesn't get distracted or bored with me; that is an entirely human failing on my part. Barbara Haggerty, in her research on people who are more deeply connected to spirituality,which you can read here and listen to on NPR here, poses the best question I've heard all year: What if our brains aren't like CD players, just processing what we perceive through our senses, but are like radios that we can tune to the "God" frequency? Some people may have an easier time tuning their dials than others. Mystics, prophets, and sages are some examples of people who have high-frequency dials. I am not a mystic or a prophet or a sage, unfortunately, and I need a lot of practice to tune in my dial! I need centering prayer, unceasing prayer, yoga, Bible study, worship services, and writing. These are gifts God has given me to transform my life through Him. We all have these gifts available to us. Praise be to God!