do they make church appropriate stretchy pants?

One thing I do when I sense distance between me and God is to beg Him for opportunities to serve him. It never fails to draw me into a more intimate awareness of His presence in my life. The last few weeks, I’ve been begging.

Then, at Tuesday’s yoga class, I was asked to join a few ladies to do “Son” salutations to the Lord’s prayer – during the church services on Sunday.

I was not excited about this opportunity.

Seriously, doing downward facing dog in front of the entire church congregation? Not what I had in mind when I asked God for an opportunity to serve him.

But isn’t that frequently the case?

I ask God for an opportunity to serve him, He provides one and my response is, “but. but. but. I don’t want to do THAT!” I don’t always have specific ideas about how I COULD serve him but I DO have ideas about how I DON’T want to serve him and sticking my badonka donk butt up in the air for a downward facing dog in front of the entire church congregation is firmly on that list.

Was firmly on that list.

Today, I asked the yoga instructor, “After you do yoga during a church service, do you find that someone new comes to class after that? Because they were prompted by seeing it?”

“YES!”

oh.

well.

okay, then.

And I’m reminded. God can use ANYthing for his purposes and glory. Even a downward facing dog.

So, I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity to serve God. With a joyful attitude. I’m sure I will have a joyful attitude, I just haven’t quite gotten there completely. Yet. Right now, I have a positive attitude, which is a long way from where I was this morning.

As I drove away from yoga this morning, I realized this opportunity supports something else I’ve been doing for the last few months. I’ve been posting my fitness goals and my daily progress on my blog, facebook and twitter. I’ve received feedback (on and off the internet) that my fitness updates have been encouraging to more people than I realized. I really thought that I would post these updates for my own personal tracking, but the feedback that I’ve received has been a two-way encouragement. People see me fail and try again and they are encouraged to try again. They see me nick away at fitness goals, a little every day and they are encouraged to do the same.

I’ve made a commitment to be a good steward of this body God has blessed me with and to hold myself accountable by sharing that commitment with others. To stand on the stage this Sunday morning and sing with the praise team – and then, moments later, NOT participate in yoga during the Lord’s prayer after, would NOT be in line with that commitment.

Now I just need to go shopping for church appropriate stretchy pants.