This entry marks my 100th post to this blog. Wow, I feel really good about that.  In fact, I’d like to pause for a moment and reflect, maybe even meditate, on the journey thus far. Oh yeah, I said meditate. 

Which brings me to what I’d like to write about today. Each time I see Christians get bent over meditation, it stresses me out.  Please pardon the soapbox I’m about to mount.

Psalm 46:10 – Be still and know that I am God.

Meditation can clearly be okay. Yet it seems to me that many Christians are stacking it right up there with Ouija boards and seances. I understand those who believe if you meditate, you should meditate on God’s word and all, but even if you are simply clearing your mind and centering yourself, I really don’t see the harm. It has been suggested to me that you could be opening windows to evil spirits when you do this.  That you are trying to achieve equality with God.  I really, really, really don’t think the vast majority of Christians are intending to summon the darkness or rival God if they engage in meditation.

Just this past week, danger has been diagnosed for yoga as well.  Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler said of yoga, “That’s just not Christianity.” After attacking yoga in a recent essay, Mohler was bombarded with letters from Christians who defended the practice.

“I’m really surprised by the depth of the commitment to yoga found on the part of many who identify as Christians,” Mohler said in response. Gosh, I’m sure he was equally appalled to discover the number of Christians who buy organic food. I don’t even want to know where he stands on Zumba, but all that hip shaking and dance music surely are of the devil.

So, again, I ask you…how many Christians who practice yoga are doing so with intentions to replace, supersede or block out God?  My wife has practiced yoga for years, and it has been instrumental in strengthening her health and all but eliminating pain associated with a herniated disc in her neck. Not once has she looked at yoga as a spiritual outlet or attempted to ascend to an equal plane with God. Mental and physical therapy? Yes. But that is it.

I don’t think it does Christianity any favors for Christian leaders to march against things like meditation and yoga. Why don’t we also attack Halloween, Santa Claus and Disney World? Oh, crap, never mind. We’ve already done all that.

For me, it all goes back to intention. How are you approaching the topic at hand? There’s a great ad slogan that says, “Guns don’t kill people. People do.” In the same way, yoga isn’t brainwashing unsuspecting Christians and leading them away from God. In fact, I’d argue that meditating and yoga are two exercises that enable most people to get more connected to God.

I’m not suggesting you go blindly into a practice like meditation and chant a bunch of things you don’t understand, but at the same time, I am under no delusion that clearing your mind for 30 minutes or going through a watered down, popularized version of meditation is going to lead you to the gates of Hell. And neither is downward dog, for that matter. With all this, I’m not saying meditation and yoga (and whatever is next on the protest list) are categorically okay. What I am saying, is that they definitely aren’t categorically wrong. 

I truly wish our Christian leaders could find more appropriate issues on which to focus. There is so much to discuss and debate. I’m just not sure why we need to spend time bending ourselves over backwards for something that is closer to weight-lifting than devil worship.  Meditate on that, Mr. Mohler, if you can.