Coming Up For Air

Hold your breath for as long as you can. No, seriously... do it right now... I'll wait. Okay, how long could you hold it? What did that experience feel like? Towards the end, how desperate were you for oxygen? I remember as a kid having competitions with my buddies at the pool to see who could hold their breath the longest while underwater. We'd suck in a huge gulp of air, puff out our cheeks, pinch our nostrils and stare intensely at one another... just waiting for someone to give in and come up to the surface, gasping for air. Looking back, it was kind of a terrifying experience. No one likes the feeling of suffocating, the desperation and longing for relief.

If you think about it, that desperation for air, that need for oxygen can be compared to our connection to God... especially our connection to God through prayer. Martin Luther said that "to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." The way Luther saw it was that prayer is necessary, vital, to the Christian life and to our connection with God. Without it we're breathless, dead, but with it we're alive and truly living in an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father. Psalm 34 takes this metaphor even further: "I bless God every chance I get; my lungs expand with His praise. I live and breathe God..." (Psalm 34:1-2, The Message). Just a few chapters later in that book we hear a passage that speaks of our greatest need and longing: "As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God..." (Psalm 42:1-2, NLT).

As we approach Lent, a season that encourages reflection through prayer, take the opportunity to come up for air. If you've been holding your breath, not allowing God to "expand your lungs" through prayer, take this next month to reconnect with Him. Like any relationship worth preserving, communication is essential. Why should our relationship with God be any different? He wants to be there for you... He wants to be connected to you and know that He is a vital part of your existence. If you feel like your life right now is suffocating your relationship with God, pray to Him and ask Him to send His Spirit into you, filling you with a life-giving breath that frees you to truly live the life you were made to live. Happy March!