After what seems like hours, I suck in a deep breath of air. Ahhhhhh... I never knew air could be so life-giving and so sweet! In and out, in and out. What a beautiful rhythm the heaving of my chest makes. The air sings in my lungs, a beautiful melody of life and hope!
It was a tunnel. A very, very long tunnel. And if you know me, you know that I can be very stubborn at times, especially if I am in a competition, even if I am just competing with myself. You also know, if you do in fact know me, that I also am a firm believer in holding my breath through tunnels. (touching metal and/or honking the horn repeatedly is also necessary depending on the circumstances.) If you don't give the tunnel the proper respect, then who knows what bad things could happen! So I held my breath.
The interesting thing about breathing is that you don't think about it. Until you can't anymore. Suddenly, all that un-important breathing that you've been doing care-free for years takes on a new-found importance! All those other worries and problems you couldn't stop thinking about five minutes ago becoeme meaningless. Just one breath, that's all you need and all you can think about!
Here's the question. What if God was our air? Let me rephrase that. GOD IS OUR AIR! Our capacity and our need for God is as all-important and all-consuming as our need for air, we just seem to forget that fact!
Let me make this personal. My need for God is immense and insatiable! I bring all this up because yesterday I forgot that simple fact. I didn't read my Bible, I didn't really spend time praying with God. I worried. I stressed. I let Satan creep into my mind and my relationships. I let him steal some of my affection. The real problem, though, is that I forgot to breathe. Yeah I took a couple sucks out of the air tank really quick here and there, but I didn't really BREATHE. Don't you dare read this and shake your head in amusement or reproach! All of us, including you, do this. We hold our breath without really realizing it. Have you ever done that, forgot to breathe?
As I am holding my breath, wanting to breathe so badly, I hit upon an idea. Maybe if I fake breathe, I can trick my lungs into thinking I took a breath so I will be able to make it through the tunnel. That's it, move my stomach in and out, in and out. Better. But my lungs are still burning with the need for air. Maybe if I just think about something else. Preoccupy my mind. But I can't focus, I can't think about anything else but my desperate need for air!
We do this. This fake breathing, this attempt to occupy our minds with something else when all that we really need is air. People turn to so many different things to try to accomplish this. Whether its alcohol, pornography, relationships, sports, or religion, we all "fake breathe." That's right, I said religion. I went there. Our attempt to dress the mess of ourselves up in a clothing of rules, regulations, and rituals is a sham. It's not really breathing! People everywhere try to deny this need, but in the middle of the night, when staring death straight in the face, when calamity hits, everyone has to face this need.
Now I want to make this very clear. I am just talking to "those" people. The ones who don't go to church, or haven't really committed their lives to Jesus. I am talking to the pew-sitters, the "big-givers," the hard workers, YOU, and I am talking to myself.
Jesus is my air. This morning as I realized what happened yesterday, why my day was in a funk, I started breathing. In and out, in and out. It felt so good and so real! Again my relationship with God was restored as I breathed in his presence--life-giving, heart-lifting, joy-bursting air! That's what I'm talking about. The real deal. The real "McCoy." Don't ever, ever forget to breathe. I guess I should say, that when you realize that you are holding your breath. Release it. Release whatever anxiety, whatever stress, whatever pain, or whatever distraction that's keeping your soul screaming for air, and breathe. Really breathe. Take a deep, life-giving breath. In and out, In and out, In and out....
"This is the air I breathe, You're holy presence living in me. And I, I'm lost without you. I'm desperate for you." -Michael W. Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment