Four Great Things About Bikram Yoga

February 15, 2013February 15, 2013 / Erin Kirk / 1 Comment

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

You think you can stir the pot by blogging about the The Bible? Try blogging about 26 yoga poses done in 90 minutes in a room heated to 105 degrees – the practice known as Bikram Yoga.

Most people either love Bikram yoga or hate it. Until last week, I was firmly in the latter category. In fact, all the way through my first class at Bikram Yoga Tyler, I still hated it. But then I got home, dumped my soggy yoga clothes in the washer and noticed I felt like a buzzing, jacked up rock star.

Here are a few things that surprised me:

1. My mind didn’t wander, possibly because it was so heavily focused on survival. The postures are so strong and the room is so hot, your mind teeters on the verge of panic, which forces it into very narrow focus.

2. Afterward I craved blueberries and water and other really nourishing food. It was like my body said, ok you just demanded a lot of me, here are my demands. The idea of eating a Big Mac, fries and a coke after a Bikram class (or any yoga class) feels like an affront.

3. I had to open my mind and trust somebody else. I’ve been practicing yoga for a long time, so hearing an instructor say “make your back hurt” “pull harder until the joint hurts” seemed like total crazy talk. I’m not weighing in on the wisdom of Bikram’s system, which is very different from classical yoga, I’m merely pointing out that the yoga snob in me got to be still for a few minutes and learn something new. Not surprisingly, it exposed how closed my mind had been.

4. It reminded me how genuine accomplishment feels. Yes, it’s hard. It’s meant to be. Yoga practice should occur outside our mental comfort zones, but this one does it on steroids. But there’s something heartening about looking in a mirror 20 feet away and seeing the shape of your 40-year old deltoids as you hold your body in full locust pose. I often tell my students there are no trophies in yoga, except the ones you give yourself.

Whether you love Bikram or not is hardly the point of this post; chipping away at limiting belief is. Bikram Yoga made me wonder what else my cozy, little opinions have prevented me from trying.

Why Should I Give Something Up?

February 13, 2013February 13, 2013 / Erin Kirk / 13 Comments

Sitting in the truck outside the auto parts store waiting for Captain Dilly Dally this morning, I sat quietly, holding my coffee cup, considering what I might give up for Lent.

Lent is a 40 day period of sacrifice, fasting and preparation for Easter that’s meant to remind us Christ’s own sacrifice. Despite wearing a smudge on my forehead every Ash Wednesday for 16 years of Catholic school, I’ve never not blown off Lent.

“I’m giving up Christmas parties for Lent this year, ha ha ha,” was a popular joke in my family that reflected a bit of disdain for Catholic rituals.

But these days, I feel like I am asking for a lot from God, so is it really that outrageous to offer a sacrifice in return? I make sacrifices for Captain Dilly Dally all the time just to express my love and devotion to him, why is Christ any different?

But whatever could I give up that I’m really attached to? What do I really love that would hurt me to go without? My fingers curled a little tighter around my still-warm, roadie cup, grasping it, clutching it like my precious.

(Photo credit: 5.0OG)

“No no, not thaaaaat Jesus, I can’t survive without that.”

On the ride home, I explained Lent to Sam (aka Capt. DD).

“You should give up coffee then,” he said confirming what I kind of already knew. “And honey, I don’t mean this bad, but you will be a bee-otch without it.”

Annoyed, I suggested he give up dropping f-bombs for Lent.

“Think of how fun Easter will be for you,” I said.

Just then, Sam hit the brakes and swung over to the side of the road to pick up a guy holding a gas can. We gave him a ride to the gas station, then back to his pickup where his brother, an amputee, was waiting.

See it’s one thing to talk about Jesus all the time, it’s another to live like him.

See you Easter Sunday Starbucks.

How Do I Defend An Orphan?

February 11, 2013March 4, 2013 / Erin Kirk / 7 Comments

Before the industrial revolution, the average income per person in the wealthiest nations was only about four times higher than that of the poorest nations. Today, the average American lives on $90+ per day and 2.6 billion people, 40% of the world, live on less than $2.

That data came from When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, which I’m reading because I have the chance to go to Zambia this summer, and I’m scared of my very white, very rich, very good intentions.

But I’m more scared of doing nothing.

Right now in Chongwe, Zambia there are four women and one man running a school/orphanage in the bush, with jacked up plumbing and 100 variously malnourished kids – and they do it for free. Tim and Holly from Scrubs Medical Mission came to cowboy church looking for a few contractors, plumbers and farmers to go help. I’ll go in a heartbeat, but I’m learning to ask God about these things before running out for typhoid shots.

Here’s what the Bible says about orphans:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress. James 1:27

Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17

Whoever receives a child in My name, receives Me. Matthew 18:5

If anyone has material possession and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? IJohn 3:17

If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10

Authors Steve Corbett and Dr. Brian Fikkert put it this way: “If God’s people in both the Old and New Testaments were to have a concern for the poor during eras of relative economic equality, what are we to conclude about God’s desire for the North American church today?”

But we have to be smart because we know development solutions formulated in a rectory in Cleveland, don’t always translate in Africa, but that hardly relieves us from the duty. The God I say I believe commands me take care of the widow, the poor, the immigrant and the orphan, just like he commanded the Nation of Israel. They failed at it too.

Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. James 1:22

So I’m praying and surrendering my assumptions and educating myself about these exact people, in this exact location, so I don’t hurt them with my ignorance. God knows I’m ignorant, obese with blessing and unequal to the task, but he also knows I can build simple irrigation systems in arid places.