Why Christian Yoga

Yoga is not a religion, even in Eastern cultures. Instead, it serves as a spiritual tool - like prayer - that may be customized according to beliefs, values, and physical ability.

The term "yoga" was adopted by Hindu and other traditions as a description of their path to spiritual growth. "Yoga" literally means "to yoke," or "to become joined or linked." For the Hindus, yoga represented a staircase leading to the yogi from ignorance to spiritual enlightenment. It was a series of steps they used to unite themselves with what was their understanding of God (an impersonal spiritual substance that coexisted with all reality.) This doctrine is called pantheism, and it is the view that God is everything and everything is God.

As Christians, our understanding of God is clearly different from Eastern religious traditions. Our relationship is with the personal God who revealed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ, who told us to take his "yoke."

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30

In these verses, the word "yoke" refers to the submission of Christ's authority. A student would take on a teacher's "yoke" and Jesus was inviting his followers to take on his yoke.

When we practice Christian yoga, we celebrate the act of emptying, dying to self, through the subjection of our minds, bodies, and spirits to the authority of Jesus Christ. We take up the yoke (or yoga!) of Christ, becoming closer to God in our hearts and healthier in the bodies He gave us.