Tai Chi and Cigarettes

I saw a man on the side of the road the other day practicing Tai Chi. And I thought to myself, "looks healthy", although I don't know much about it. As I got closer, I noticed he was smoking a cigarette, and I thought, "hmm, not so healthy.."

I thought about an observation that author Donald Miller made, that truth was complicated and messy. If something is not messy, then it's probably not real -somebody just made it up. His point was that the bible is complicated and messy, therefore real.

I think some would look at the Tai Chi and use it as a metaphor for spirituality and the cigarette as sin. Or, I suppose you can also look at the two as self righteousness and the reality that you cannot hide. I think the heartbreaking reality that the bible presents to us as Christians is that we have both an old self/sin nature and a new self/spiritual nature that we have to contend with. This is complicated and messy.