Diego MSN conversation 2

Diego: The other day I was talking to a friend who has just started a workout routine to get in shape. It sounded really good but…
Dale: But you were afraid to mention it to me lest I thought you were pestering me about my weight?
Diego: No – well sorta…actually it was that the workout routine contained yoga exercises as a part of the training. Aren’t we supposed to stay away from yoga cause of it connection to cults and stuff?
Dale: Hmmm! This one is tricky. There are a couple of ways to look at this and a bunch of things to consider.
Diego: Are you saying it might be okay to practice yoga or other meditation practices?
Dale: Back the cart up. Let me suggest a few things to consider and then we can keep talking about this…
First, here’s a quiz. Ready?
Diego: Sure!
Dale: How do you usually pray? I mean what position is your body in when you pray – usually?
Diego: I don’t know. I stand, sit, kneel, slouch – whatever. Usually I close my eyes. But if I am alone I usually like to sit cross-legged on my bed and hold my hands open in my lap or holding my Bible.
Dale: How do you think your physical posture affects your prayer?
Diego: Well I find if I allow my body to move with what I am saying or feeling at the time there seems to be a greater connection for me to God. I know it weird but…
Dale: Does closing your eyes make your prayer more effective?
Diego: No, I don’t think God listens to my prayer more when my eyes are closed. But I do feel like I can concentrate on my inner thoughts and lose the distractions if my eyes are closed.
Dale: Good point! Let me tell you a little story: I grew up in Nicaragua and as a missionary kid I attended a lot of church services. When someone prayed in church it was way different than what we are used to up here in Canada. I mean as soon as someone would start praying other people would start talking out loud – thanking God and agreeing with the person who was praying and saying other stuff that the person who was praying might have forgotten to say. Plus they almost always stood and often had their hands up in the air. Sometimes it got so you couldn’t hear the person who was ‘praying’. So growing up – I remember thinking that the really good prayers were the ones where people got excited like that. My prayers were good – the ones I prayed on my knees beside my bed or at the dinner table – but the real good ones were…
Diego: Sometimes I wonder if it would be better if we got a little more excited when we prayed.
Dale: Sure. But I would say my ideas as a child were off the mark. I would say that there is no position that makes us more or less likely to pray well. Now I know that Yoga is way more than just a position of prayer, but I think we need to start by just saying upfront that as a physical body position it really is no better or worse for me spiritually than standing sitting or anything else.
Diego: I get that. Sometimes I pray while I’m driving to school and listening to the morning show on Fliesch 92 fm. Regardless of what music is playing I still feel pretty close to God. So it’s all good?
Dale: Well it would be premature to stop it there but we should pick this up again tomorrow at lunch.
Diego: Pizza Hut with Jodi, Kayla, and Avery?
Dale: Yup!