A friend of mine recently turned 40. When I texted her happy birthday, she wrote back that she was feeling very (old) and she sent the photo of the old lady from Titanic saying, “It’s been 84 years.”
I wrote her back, “I see your 40 feeling old, and I raise you my 47 with a hurt hip.” I explained that a couple of nights before, I was standing near the fireplace and we had a bunch of boxes nearby. Rusty was behind me, and as Terry walked off toward our bedroom to brush his teeth, Rusty took off running after him. In the process, he knocked me out from under my feet. I knew I was going to go down, I just tried to control the fall. The edge of the fireplace was so close, and all I could think about was, “Don’t hit your head on the fireplace!” Never mind the rest of my body, and the boxes. All I could think about was not hitting my head.
Right after I fell, I was quite proud of myself for not hitting my head. So I bounced back up, reassured Terry I was fine, and went on about my normal business.
The next morning, however, things weren’t feeling so normal. As I stood by the coffee pot, I thought, “Gracious. I must have slept funny.” As a few minutes went by, I realized it wasn’t the way I slept. It was the way I fell, when Rusty knocked me over.
Elevating my leg helped, immensely. As did moving around and applying BioFreeze and heat. After a bit of this not going away, I was really feeling old. Our pastor, Steve Lawes, has a saying when something hurts on his body. “Is this new?” Like, is this a new pain, or this temporary and will be leaving soon?
I kept asking, “Is this new?”
So I got back to what I know works best for my body … yoga.
I did a 30 minute session and immediately felt relief.
“Ding dong, what took you so long?” I asked myself. The second day my hip and back hurt from my fall with Rusty, I told Terry, “I need to do yoga. I’ll be fine. Because yoga fixes everything!” And then I got busy and never did it.
Life got busy for over a week, then I said to myself, “Enough! Get back on the mat!” (Yoga mat)
“But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” - Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)
When I get out of practice and do not do yoga, my body feels it and I suffer for it. Our bodies need that physical discipline of exercise.
Our spiritual selves need discipline, too. The more time we spend exercising our faith by reading God’s Word and being still and quiet in our prayer time; the more we learn to trust in the Lord and find new strength.
Sometimes when I pray, I do all the talking. Don’t get me wrong, Papa wants to hear from us. But He wants to nudge us, too. He wants us to be mindful of His Holy Spirit. So we need to be still and quiet.
The more often I do yoga, my body is strong and flexible. It has that new strength.
The more you and I trust in the Lord, we will find new strength. We will soar high on wings like eagles. We will run and not grow weary. We will walk and not faint. Our faith is strong and flexible with what life throws our way.
We have to exercise our bodies, for sure. But we also need to exercise our hearts and minds for Jesus. Because Jesus fixes everything.
Spend time with Him. Get in a quiet place, every single day, and find new strength.