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In the same way that measured breathing is essential to yoga, the Spirit—which in both biblical Greek and Hebrew also means breath—is indispensable to my soul. Breathe in. Breathe out. Holy Spirit in. Anything that's not from God out. Come Holy Spirit. Renew my mind. In. Out. Thank. You. As I twist my body into places it hadn't been before, I can't help but pray this. Why fix what ain't broke?

Now, my enthusiasm for yoga doesn't mean I'm in denial about its Hindu roots. The magazine Hinduism Today editorialized that "the knowing separation of hatha yoga from Hinduism is deceptive." I know that hard-core yogis believe that yoga is more than exercise or a relaxation technique. To them, it's a religious ritual.

But the Hindu gods don't make it onto my mat. Yoga purists don't lead classes at mainstream American gyms. Could it be that some of them learned yoga from the purists? Yes. But no one's making me repeat any mantras. The closest any of my gym's several yoga teachers get to religious utterances is by bowing and saying "Namaste" at the end each class, which can be translated as "The soul in me honors the soul in you" or "The image of God in me honors the image of God in you." I like it! It just reminds me that, as C. S. Lewis put it, there are no mere mortals.

But let's suppose an improbable scenario: that one of these religious yoga proselytizers sneaked into my gym with the intent of spreading Hinduism. Say she'd put on a beautiful, rhythmic melody with an Oriental boy choir chanting words of worship that address an idol. Could she seduce my soul, over time, away from Christ?

I don't think so. I don't, for one, because worship is a conscious act of the mind. If it's busy overflowing with gratitude to Christ for the way he made my body, I simply don't have the mental space to give up to an idol. Second, can a non-existent idol snatch me away from Father God who has adopted me as his child? No chance.

In other words, yoga is like the meat that had been offered to idols. Can I put it on my sandwich? That, more or less, was the question on the minds of some of Christians in Corinth. "We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one," Paul wrote to them. "For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth … yet for us there is but one God." Food "does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do," he said.

But some people, he acknowledged, are "so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled." Willis, by her own admission, falls in this category when it comes to yoga.

As for me, put that meat on my sandwich! Yummy! Thank you, Jesus!

Christ in.

Stress out.

Holy Spirit in.

Fear out.

God the Father in.

Carbon dioxide out.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Other Christianity Today articles on yoga and meditation include:

Good Question
Dangerous Meditations | What harm is there in achieving a higher state of consciousness through meditation? (Nov. 16, 2004)

The Higher Self Gets Down to Business | An old movement appears anew—in the corporate world. (Jan. 24, 2003)

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May (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49