Now that you’ve read this issue’s feature article, here are some thoughts for you to ponder alone or discuss with friends. You may agree or disagree with the ideas put forth in our main article, but the key thing is, you are thinking, discerning, and making conscious decisions about how you will approach issues that affect you and your world. Please consider sharing your thoughts with other readers. Email us at cafe@elca.org and we’ll post your comments in the Tip Jar. Reader comments are updated weekly.

The situation

Many of us have daily schedules filled to the brim. Among all those responsibilities and involvements, are we doing what we need to do for ourselves? Do we set aside time to be still, to reflect on our lives, God’s world, and our place in it? Does our faith have anything to do with the decisions we make for care of self? This issue focuses on yoga as a way to find some balance and renew ourselves. It allows time for quiet reflection and can also be viewed as a time when we give ourselves permission to step out of our jam-packed schedules, and regenerate. As you think about the article you have just read, we offer the following questions for individual or group reflection.

Points to consider

How have you experienced God's transforming power? Think about when it happened and how it happened. Were you aware of it at the time, or did it become clear to you later? How did your life or actions change due to this experience?

What are some of the ways that you set aside time for God? Will you (or do you) participate in an activity such as Christian yoga? Does it appeal to you? Why or why not? If you do not care for yoga, what other ways might you find space for spiritual reflection?

Involvement in community activities is a great way to not only make a stronger community but to act on your belief that we are all God’s children. If the opportunity existed for you to develop a program that you could offer to your community, what would it be? How would you make it happen?

Sometimes it is easier to see the needs of someone else we care about rather than our own needs. Send this issue of Café to a friend, and ask her to honestly share something she thinks would be beneficial to your spiritual health. Then be prepared to do the same for her. How might you help each other realize these growth opportunities?