The Pose

“The pose begins when you want to get out of it.”

This was a quote I saw today. The girl who said it was referring specifically to ballet and yoga.

Wow! What a picture! What a great saying! That’s life. That’s the key to changing or becoming or transforming or finally beginning to reach that potential.

Just when it starts to hurt, just when those muscles start to ache, just when you can’t possibly run one more mile, take one more step or stretch one more inch…you’re right where you need to be. You’re at your peak. You’re getting the most out of what you’re doing.

This is true in our physical lives of discipline and exercise and eating right and work and kids and relationships. But this is also so very true in our spiritual lives.

Just when we think we have reached the limit of our patience, our love, our understanding, our service, our generosity, our perseverance…right there is where we need to be. Because Christ never told us that these things would be easy…only worth it. We don’t always practice patience and service and love because it feels good at the time. Sometimes we want to do and be anything but.

But…just like that moment after you release the hard yoga pose, after you finish that race, after you’re done with that hour of exercising, after you’ve taken that hardest of steps…that’s when the feeling comes. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. That’s when the relief and satisfaction that we did good comes.

And after we’ve practiced all the tough things that Christ commanded, we can breathe a deep breath and say, “I did it.”

And one day, after a whole long life of doing those hard things He told us to do, and doing them with a happy heart and a good attitude, guess what? When He sees us, He says, “Good work! You did your job well.” ( matthew 25:23, the message)

And who doesn’t want to hear that?