In my senior year of highschool, I decided to get fit. My goal was to start jogging from my house to the elementary school and back, approximately a 1-mile distance. I planned to repeat this route as much as possible. Lacing up my running shoes and pulling back my hair, I set out with my Walkman in hand. I need to pause right here and give the MP3 player some recognition. The 90’s Walkman was like running with a dessert plate, it’s laughable now but I thought I was really trendy at the time. The elementary school was situated on a hill, so the last 100 yards were grueling. At the top of the hill, I would stop to breathe, exhaling loud quick breaths.
During the fall season, this exercise became a routine. Each time I jogged I challenged myself to go further until I reached a 3-mile run. The changing leaves were a colorful inspiration to take in as I huffed and puffed along. Unfortunately, I took a cold. Undeterred, I kept running each day but my cough got worse. Finally, I had to go to the doctor. I was surprised to hear the diagnosis “Exercise-induced Asthma.” As a result, I stopped running immediately.
To breathe is something I think most healthy people take for granted. We wake up in the morning breathing. The morning regimen carries on as usual: taking a shower, getting dressed, and eating breakfast. But how often do we stop to think of the miracle that is life? In fact, I think life can be like a marathon we run every day trying to get a better time than the day before. We can find ourselves enraptured in the American Dream: Be more, do more, earn more, spend more.
I reached the top of the hill of ambition, gasping for breath. Discontent I started looking around at what other people were doing to cope, but this only gave me deeper problems. To be honest, in my darkest moments, I felt unable to breathe, even wishing I could die. I hate that there is an end to my rope, but I am thankful that I have retrained my eyes to stop looking around and start looking up. I’ve become aware that each breath I exhale is a gift not originating with me, but a God-given gift. This breath I breathe has a grace, an unmerited favor given by the Creator God.
In Genesis 2:7 it says “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life or spirit of life, and man became a living being.” We are alive and have our being because God saw fit to create us.
Our lives were formed from God’s exhale. He made me and he made you so uniquely. I can’t begin to run anyone else’s race as well as the one he planned for me and neither can you. Put down the self-help book and pick up the book he wrote for you.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. II Timothy 3:16.
When I was struggling with exercise induced asthma I was prescribed an inhaler. As I inhaled a puff of medicine, I held it in my lungs for ten seconds before slowly exhaling. In this process, my lungs could get the full benefit. During my coughing spells when I was so worked up that tears were rolling down my cheeks, I would feel the cool ease the medicine gave my lungs.
What if we thought of God’s word like that. Like a treatment to deepen and enrich our lives. We can strengthen our lives by speaking His word over ourselves. If you are depressed begin to say God’s word over yourself. See how he can change your perspective.
Eventually, I got back into running, but I couldn’t go about it the same way. Instead of rushing into running longer distances I had to pace myself. I had to be careful that I didn’t start breathing too hard too long. I probably won’t be a marathon runner but that’s ok. I guess I am just learning how to run my own race. As I inhale all this life has to offer I want to speak God's word on the exhale.
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