Psalm 139: 13; Jeremiah:4:18 ; Luke 14: 27

Out of alignment

Louise Foxcoft has written a book entitled “calories and corsets,” a history of dieting over 2000 years.  In a radio interview, she describes women around the turn of the last century, pushing themselves into corsets that pressed their upper torso up and tightened their waists while the bottom half of the dress became huge.  Women were allowing  themselves to be shaped in ways that were considered attractive then.  This all changed after World War I.  One-fifth of all young men in Britain alone were killed in the Great War. There was a shortage of men. Foxcroft claims that as a result fashion wound up going for the boyish look all the way into the roaring twenties.  Fashion molded a whole new image of women.

When I wore a harness-like leather and metal brace in my teens that kind of had a corset shape, it was about shaping my back before the spine and vertebrae would harden permanently.  In a way this is what the potter does.  The potter shapes the clay before it gets hardened in the oven.  This is not easy. It requires steady hands and the right pressure on the pedal and also a sense of direction to create the desired shape. Jeremiah speaks of God as a potter.  The potter is the Creator Who molds each person physically (as in Psalm 139), but more important, spiritually.  There is to be balance, and the right pressure and a vision for the shape.

When I spoke about this text in the past I emphasized the idea of the potter, of the shaper, but this time I want to look at the person who is shaped spiritually. This is the direction Luke is taking us into.  A disciple is not born overnight, a disciple is molded through the pressure of sacrifice and servant hood.  It is a kind of

A number of weeks ago I was talking to a young man who said he was a chiropractor.  I told him about my very limited experience with chiropractors and asked them about the way they make joints and the spine pop.  He really drove home the point that “this is not all we do.” He explained that the molding they hep the body do is lot about stretching muscles these days.  Chakrita said what jumped out to her in this text was a kind of “chiropractic moment.” We need to be aligned to the will and action of God.  But how is that done?

To answer that I would like to stay with the idea of alignments that is so important in chiropractic treatment.  Our bodies are out of alignment so easily, the more as we get older.  It could be because of too much weight behind a kick in soccer or football or too forceful a throw in baseball. It can happen when we sleep and we toss and turn. It can happen when we bend over and pick up something heavy without thinking. It can be because of a sudden jolt to our bodies we don’t expect.  The same is true of our emotional and our spiritual state. We get misaligned because of obstacles we face or bitter disappointment or traumatic experiences.  Sometimes it is just because little mishaps are just piling up one top of the other.  So we go out of whack, get pushed of balance, despite our attempts at being prepared and in spite our best intentions. Nothing meditation or yoga or even morning devotions can do much about some times.  Friends, after reflecting on this I think there are three things that can help us stay aligned both physically and spiritually.

First, we have to be loose. We cannot come back into alignment physically, emotionally spiritually when we are all tightened up, when we are resisting, when our muscles are pulling us in the opposite direction of where we need to go.  We all know what that feels like.  There has to be a moment of relaxation, of letting go of control, when we trust the process and trust God’s grace.

Second, we have to be committed.  Those of us with questionable backs can tell you that you cannot adjust over night or in half an hour.  Even if we understand what we need to do, we are still going to fall back into our old patterns.  We have to exercise ourselves over time over a long period.  The real change will only take place with consistent discipline.

Finally,  friends, we have to be vigilant.  We cannot expect things to go smoothly all the time. Just because we are well-intentioned, it does it mean there won’t be glitches.  We cannot let up.  We have to be aware of the challenges that can knock us off course.  I think these lessons of the body can teach us about how we handle not only our personal growth, but also how we act in the cause of changing the world to become sustainable, just and compassionate.  There is hope. Thanks be to God.