As I was practicing functional therapeutic movement this morning, meditating on the Word, my mind wandered to a picture that captured me in a difficult yoga pose. Even though I only held the pose for a few seconds, it looked really amazing frozen in a photo. I thought of posting it to show my yoga progress and to be honest, look impressive. I let that thought go and returned to thinking about the Word.
After I finished my practice, I sat down to read, and the words of Jesus in Luke 14:11 rang true to me about that thought from earlier.
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” – Luke 14:11
I realized that Jesus wants me to shine my light to direct others to Him with my failures as well as my successes. Shining a light on my failures is a humbling and frightening task for this recovering perfectionist. So instead of posting a highlight pic, I decided to recover a deleted “fail” pic and post that instead.
Sharing this picture was a very humbling experience for me. My wife has been able to stand in tree pose for years without any problem. For me, on the other hand, tree pose is hit or miss, depending on the day. Trying to do double tree pose as partners brings in another level of difficulty. Tree pose requires core strength and a lot of balance and. With a partner, it requires all this on top of counterbalancing.
Marriage is very similar to double tree pose in that it is balancing act to keep each other rooted down and standing tall. We all have our strengths and weaknesses; and thankfully, my wife and I balance each other out, most of the time.
On that day (and many others), I didn’t have the balance. My lack of balance required my wife to do more counterbalancing to compensate. A similar thing often happens in marriage–one spouse might have to help hold the other up during difficult situations. When both partners are able to root down on a solid foundation, it is easier to stand firm. When a couple’s faith is rooted in the love of Jesus, they will have the strength to stand tall during hard times.
Even though I was messing up the pose and the pictures, my sweet wife never expressed her frustration with me; she only gave words of encouragement. A marriage characterized by building each other up during trials will come out stronger and closer to God.
Today I want to share my failed pose as a reminder of my humbling experience and my gratitude that I have a wonderful partner in both yoga and life to help me when I struggle.