"be the pose"

“Stop trying to do the pose, be the pose.” These words were spoken to my wife by her yoga instructor and they have been ringing in my head and my heart all week. They are very eastern, yogic and Hebraic words. Oh how I strive and struggle to do they things I know I am supposed to do or I sense God calling me to do. Over the past few months God has continued to place before me the vision for our church to become more committed and involved in racial reconciliation, economic redistribution, justice, and mercy for the poor, and multiculturalism. I have been striving and struggling to figure out how to do that; how to embody this vision; how to become all that God longs for us to be; how strategize, plan and implement these visions. This has stressed me out; at times I have doubted my call and my ability to accomplish these things. I have been smothered by and defeated by the pervasive principalities and powers of racism, class-ism and economic injustice that enslave us. I am powerless to change these things. Then throughout the week I have heard the words echoing in my head again, “Stop trying to do the pose, be the pose.” Stop trying to do church, be the church. Stop trying to do racial reconciliation, be racial reconciliation. Stop trying to do justice, be justice. Stop trying to do multicultural ministry, be it. I am not sure what that fully means but it at least means this: I must come to a place of need and dependency and realize that I am powerless to change and just be God's dependent son. I need God to do this work, I can only BE. Be available. Be willing. Be open. Be present. Otherwise I am paralyzed by the seemingly unattainable vision of the future. I want to be able to embrace what Common sings, “The present is a gift and I just wanna BE.” In being I am learning to wait............... on the Lord.

Is. 30:1; 15-22
Woe to the obstinate children," declares the LORD, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin;

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.

You said, 'No, we will flee on horses.'
Therefore you will flee!
You said, 'We will ride off on swift horses.'
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill."

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!

People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."