One of the exercises I do when I work out is called a plank. In its essence, the plank is simple : You take “push-up” position and hold it—and keep holding for as long as you can. It sounds straightforward enough, but trust me, they are quite challenging. Warning: If you've never done them: They will kick your butt; but they'll strengthen it too.
You may want to start with low (standard) planks [shown below] as they put less strain on the wrists. I went straight to advanced, but it wasn't because I'm Super Plank Dude. Nah, I simply didn't know any better when I started doing them a few months back. COVID-19 closed down my gym, and I was forced to completely rework my workout almost overnight. I looked up exercises I could to do at home and I saw the advanced version of planks on a YouTube video and started doing them that way.
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| Plank Position |
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| High Plank (Advanced) |
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| Low Plank (Standard) |
I can only hold (advanced) plank position for a couple minutes, so far. I felt pretty good about my progress, until I read recently that the Guinness Book of World Records reports that the record time for holding plank position is 8 hours and 10 minutes!! Sigh… Oh well, I guess when it comes to doing planks: Much to learn I still have.
Overall, doing planks is a great way to build core strength. In other words, they don’t work one muscle group intensely like many other exercises do. Instead, the exercise enhances a wide range of muscles throughout your entire body: e.g., biceps, abs, obliques, glutes, quads. There are variations where you do the plank on your side, or lifting your legs, to build up your obliques and other muscles.
I think it was while holding plank position one day that this thought occurred to me: Is there a spiritual equivalent of the plank exercise? In other words, is there a routine we could follow or are there certain spiritual practices that train our whole spiritual body and enhance all the other practices? Theologian Dallas Willard suggests that silence and solitude function in this manner. Another way of saying it is that these two are gateway practices that help prime us for other practices. I’d add contemplative prayer as another core practice, and also worship.
Gateway practices have an interesting parallel to the plank exercise. When I take plank position, the goal is to hold my body still and to focus on holding my position. (I’ve actually been known to sing the song Still while doing a plank.) So, practicing planks trains me to hold my position physically for increasing periods of time. Likewise, when I engage in practices like silence, solitude, contemplative prayer, and worship, they teach me to hold my position spiritually for extended periods.
Or to say it another way, while doing planks strengthens my physical core, these gateway practices strengthen my spiritual core.
We need a well-developed spiritual core to navigate our world today. The ongoing COVID-19 isolation has been a challenge for most of us. We’ve had to adjust to conducting much of our lives virtually, and we long for face-to-face interactions, which we used to take for granted. It’s not just work-related and church-related meetings that had to move online almost overnight, it’s educational activities for all ages, as well as life milestones, such as graduations and birthday parties that had to be done virtually. At our core, we are relational beings. Although social media, Zoom, and Teams can facilitate some of that interaction, it’s not the same as seeing someone face-to-face. No matter how good the computer interface becomes, there will inevitably be a gap between the virtual world and the real one. Without a strong spiritual core, without a life grounded in God, we run the risk of getting “lost in the gap.”
And now, on top of the pandemic, we add the heightened tension in recent weeks in our nation over America’s original sin of racism. It’s so woven into the very fabric of how our nation began, that we often accept it as the way things are without questioning it. It’s always been there in the background, and at times it rears its ugly head, but it quickly gets pushed back under the rug. It had erupted to the surface several times over the last few years (e.g., Ferguson, MO and Baltimore, MD), but each time there was so much else going on in the world that we could easily find excuses not to confront the issue of racism. But then came 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic bought much of life as we know to a screeching halt. We were suddenly largely confined to our homes. We had more time to pay attention to deeper things. This time in isolation has become like a crucible for confronting long-standing societal issues like racism.
Maybe that’s why many of us noticed the recent string of racial incidents so much more keenly than we had in the past. Then again, it might be just because they were so blatant, it reached a point where we just couldn’t in good conscience ignore them any longer. First Ahmad Arbery, fatally shot simply because he had the misfortune of taking a jog in the “wrong neighborhood”; then Breonna Taylor, killed by police during a home invasion; and most recently, George Floyd, murdered in cold blood by a white police officer in Minneapolis while his fellow officers stood and watched.
If the first two ignited the spark on dry brush that is racism in our nation’s collective conscious, then the last one was kerosene poured upon it. The whole ugly George Floyd affair was captured on video for all the world to watch: 8 minutes and 46 seconds of pure unedited horror. The words, “I can’t breathe,” became etched in our minds eye—and perhaps finally pierced our hearts of stone? (The jury is still out on this.) And yet it still took a week for the officers to be charged with crimes. Protests ensued in many places in our country and even around the world. In some cases, there was also violence, looting, and rioting (which Dr. King once called “the language of the unheard.”)
As followers of Christ, and particularly as white Christians, we must train ourselves to hold our position and not look away from this too fast. I can draw an analogy to holding plank position during a workout. It’s strenuous for sure—even painful; my entire body shakes toward the end. There’s always the temptation when I exercise to “skip the plank just this once.” But only if I stick with it over time do I see results: My core grows stronger.
Likewise, when it comes to conversations on race, we’ve got to train ourselves to hold our position—even when doing so gets painful—as opposed to deflecting the conversation to make us feel more comfortable. As an example, this is what I believe happens every time someone responds to the political statement that, “black lives matter,” with the more inclusive sounding, “all lives matter.”
It’s not that this counterclaim isn’t true. Of course, all human lives matter to God. It’s just that making this statement has deflected the focus from where it needs to be right now—at this moment in history—and I think, whether we’re consciously aware of it or not, that was the whole reason we said it in the first place.
As we train our spiritual core, we will develop the capacity to see ourselves as we really are. We will be able to hold our position long enough to see the truth—even when doing so becomes painful for us. Jesus said, “the truth will set us free,” but that can only happen if we acknowledge it.
Racism is a nuanced issue that defies a simple binary (i.e., good versus bad) solution and demands spiritual core strength—from all parties involved—to be effectively engaged.
We cannot make progress unless we can have honest and frank dialogue about this difficult topic. In order for this to happen, we need to learn to truly listen to one another, so that we hear what’s being said and let the implication of those words sink in. We must discipline ourselves against the knee-jerk tendency to drop into defensive mode when we become uncomfortable, and to default to well-worn habits of deflection whenever we're challenged to confront racism.
In short, we must develop the ability to listen when people of color tell us something is so and resist the urge to whitesplain it away.
I would also add that we as whites don’t get to set the agenda for this conversation—like we’ve done for centuries. While we can—and we must—contribute to the discussion, we cannot lead it. We must let ourselves be led.
So, do your planks and say your prayers; strengthen your physical and spiritual core and prepare for what lies ahead—even though you’re not sure what role will be yours to play. Sit in stillness, so you can discern when God calls you to act. Be silent, so you’ll know when your voice is needed—and when you need to listen. Just as in John Wesley’s day, our world longs for disciplined people who do no harm, do good, and who—even in the midst of the chaos and confusion of the present moment—train themselves to stay in love with God.
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