Hunger: What are you taking in? - What do you choose to breathe in?

FOCUS SCRIPTURE

Genesis 2:7

DAILY BYTE

Are you currently aware of your own breathing? Get in a comfortable position, set a timer, close your eyes if you like, and take at least one whole minute simply to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth slowly.

What do you notice? Are your senses heightened? What did you hear and smell? What did you sense about your body? We tend to think of breathing only as affecting our lungs, but in reality, our whole bodies breathe. The tension in our muscles is often held and released through breathing. Our different organs work in harmony to ensure that we have the supply of oxygen pumping through them that we need physically to live. But what if we could become more aware not just of the necessity of breathing but the gift of breath in our life.

Think of the times when you are most aware of your breath. I find that it’s usually when I’m struggling to catch it - whether because of illness, running and exercising hard, walking up stairs, when feeling surprised or anxious about something. In these moments, though, I think of difficulty breathing as something that is hindering my access to more vibrant life. Instead, could we choose to think of breathing as an opportunity with each breath for God to supply us with greater life?

Some of us, practically speaking, breathe toxins and artificial stimulants into our bodies through practices like smoking. Now may be a good time to consider what it means for your body and soul to be breathing in substances that hinder life instead of aiding God’s desire to extend and facilitate growth in life. But what other potentially life-hindering ideas about the world and yourself do you breathe in but fail ever to breathe out? The scripture for today from Genesis says that out of God’s breath, human beings receive breath. What fresh new breath - what wind of the Spirit might God want to make space for within you? In her book, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life, Marjorie Thompson suggests a particular form of prayer to help us purposefully choose the attitudes and issues that we breathe into our lives, discerning with God which thoughts are life-giving and which are constricting. She says:

Find a posture that allows you to be relaxed and alert. It helps to have your neck and spine aligned. Close your eyes and breathe deeply several times. Consciously release any muscle tension…. Breathe in peace. Breathe out tension. Relax your mind. If particular thoughts keep returning, gather them up and give them to God to hold for you during this time. You can take them back later if you want. Turn your attention to God’s presence. Let yourself be fully aware of the mystery of divine love that continually surrounds and upholds us. God is breathing life into you at each moment; take the gift. Let God’s presence fill your consciousness, and simply rest in this presence – just as you might with someone you love dearly and feel no need to speak to, just to be with.

Let yourself be like a child cradled in the lap of a wonderful parent or grandparent; or perhaps gently supported in an ocean of light; or enfolded in a peaceful warmth. Let yourself be held in God’s tender embrace; rest and soak up the love that holds you. Close your prayer by thanking God for any gifts received in this time.

Know that you can return to that place of breathing in God’s presence any time – at any moment of the day. If you pay attention, how might what you breathe in change the way you breathe out life on others?

Questions for reflection:

1. Are you breathing? (Let’s hope so….) But how is your breathing? What are you breathing in? What are you breathing out? Are you gasping for breath? Are you breathing evenly? What aspects of God do you need to breathe in? What aspects of life do you need to breathe out?
2. How might your whole life breathe the breath of God for others?

PRAYER

Try either to pray using the breathing prayer today and/or meditate on these words of the song, “Breath of God,” performed by the artists Shane Barnard & Shane Everett:

A life you cannot define, a purpose that’s benign / they need to see and believe, be led to the rugged tree / The one on which he cried not for his pain but for our debt, the very same tree that He conquered death / It was an unfair deal on the part of Christ - He got my sin, I got eternal life / Make me the breath of God, and I’ll show them the one that means the most to me / They’ll see the face of love, be touched by the very one that died upon that tree / Small talk is a better choice, a way to avoid your voice / I need to feel the dust on my knees and lead them to the tree / Will you follow me, lead them to the tree, can’t you just believe, will you take the knee for eternity? / Make me the breath of God…