Engage your Core!

I’m a beginner in my Pilates class, trying to get the hang of the almost imperceptible moves and holds while remembering to keep breathing, shoulders relaxed, and engage my core. 

Engage my core.

Not sure I’ve quite mastered the hang of this yet but it seems that to engage my core is to pull in tight at my belly button and imagine a thread tightening right through to the other side of my body. The purpose of engaging the core is to strengthen it, so that when stresses and strains come my back won’t be weak and a disc give way. 

I’ve started my day right this morning, by engaging my spiritual core. Just standing and resting in God, looking out at the beauty of the autumn, aware of the dashing and darting of birds and the noises of geese migrating. I’ve spoken my love for God to him again, even in song, and read his Word and now I am strengthened to go through the day, whatever it may hold.

It isn’t that I will succeed at crossing off all the bullet points on my To-Do list, but that when the interruptions come, I’ll recognise those which are divinely ordained and go with the flow in joy and peace, trusting that God has my back. Nothing will give way under the strain of the unexpected.

Some people come from dysfunctional families where they have never felt that anyone had their back, and it’s a very lonely and vulnerable place to be. But for us all, God loves us with all his heart and whether or not I put myself in the right place first thing in the morning, He will still have my back. But I won’t have His peace, and without his peace something inside of me may just slip or give way.

The joy of the Lord is your strength. That is the core that I am engaging today, which will see me through the unexpected things that may come my way.

I’m not very good at engaging my physical nor my spiritual core, but I am practicing, and I'm getting better.