Thursday, July 31, 2008
Breathing Lessons
When I was a kid I used to see how long I could hold my breath. I think I got up to two minutes and something, but I was always plenty happy to blow out that bad air and suck in some good. Sometimes we Christians seem like we’re playing the same game—we’re spiritual ‘breath-holders.’ We take in and take in, holding onto it as…long…as… we…possibly…can. But by midweek life has sufficiently battered us to the point where the spiritual oxygen in our lungs has been depleted—all the love gets used up—turning into spiritual CO2. So we blow out that stale air, and run back to church to gulp in some more sanctified air.
Not only is this exhausting for us, but we leave our culture turning away from us, as if we have bad breath…spiritual halitosis. Spiritual air that has been held for too long loses it’s love, it’s grace, it’s mercy. It smells of judgmentalism, legalism, and self-righteousness. It’s hard to ‘love our neighbors as ourselves’ when years of shallow breathing have left us in spiritual oxygen debt.
The Surprise Me God Experiment was my attempt to consciously place myself in his presence daily, to intentionally experience that organic relationship throughout all the moments of my days, to breath in Jesus through the spigot of each moment—whether in church or not. And it was good, maybe even better than church air! In fact, it was so good, that I no longer wanted to hold it in. I wanted to blow it out immediately so I could breathe it in again, and again…
Now, I found myself compelled to exhale that same love on others. I didn’t have to blow them over with it because I hadn’t ‘held it’ for months, I wasn’t ‘short of spiritual breath.’ Now, I exhaled that same life-giving love and forgiveness that I had inhaled, minus the agenda-driven, performance-based works. Just as God had Surprised Me, now I got to surprise others. I got to be his love. I got to Be the Surprise.
Once we have been surprised, we are now ready to become the surprise. And when we have received that love, we no longer love out of obligation or duty. Now we love…because. We love because he first loved us. We love naturally—as naturally as breathing.
When we learn to breath spiritually, everything changes. Everything. It leads to freedom, peace, and authenticity—to genuine relationships where love is comfortably received and given—inhaled and exhaled.
Not only is this exhausting for us, but we leave our culture turning away from us, as if we have bad breath…spiritual halitosis. Spiritual air that has been held for too long loses it’s love, it’s grace, it’s mercy. It smells of judgmentalism, legalism, and self-righteousness. It’s hard to ‘love our neighbors as ourselves’ when years of shallow breathing have left us in spiritual oxygen debt.
The Surprise Me God Experiment was my attempt to consciously place myself in his presence daily, to intentionally experience that organic relationship throughout all the moments of my days, to breath in Jesus through the spigot of each moment—whether in church or not. And it was good, maybe even better than church air! In fact, it was so good, that I no longer wanted to hold it in. I wanted to blow it out immediately so I could breathe it in again, and again…
Now, I found myself compelled to exhale that same love on others. I didn’t have to blow them over with it because I hadn’t ‘held it’ for months, I wasn’t ‘short of spiritual breath.’ Now, I exhaled that same life-giving love and forgiveness that I had inhaled, minus the agenda-driven, performance-based works. Just as God had Surprised Me, now I got to surprise others. I got to be his love. I got to Be the Surprise.
Once we have been surprised, we are now ready to become the surprise. And when we have received that love, we no longer love out of obligation or duty. Now we love…because. We love because he first loved us. We love naturally—as naturally as breathing.
When we learn to breath spiritually, everything changes. Everything. It leads to freedom, peace, and authenticity—to genuine relationships where love is comfortably received and given—inhaled and exhaled.
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