Last year you probably heard that I struggled through a long bout against double pneumonia. It was not an easy time, what with my quadriplegia. While I was in the hospital, the doctors set an oxygen tank beside my bed so I could breathe easier. Never did I appreciate oxygen so much! On nights when I could hardly get a breath, my husband would put that oxygen mask over my face… what relief! To breathe! Up until my illness, I inhaled and exhaled the stuff with hardly a thought. I took breathing for granted. But in the hospital, I discovered that whether we realize it or not, we live life moment-by-moment-by-moment. We breathe in so naturally… it’s such a “given.” But, oh my, what a gift. Oxygen is the life and breath of our body.
I have to admit, this “take something so precious for granted” sort of thing is often the way I relate to Jesus, my true life and breath. Because we live, move, and have our being in him, it is so easy to take his life-sustaining grace for granted. Every day we breathe in his love, breathe in grace, breathe in his help. And what do we exhale? A dull forgetfulness of his constant love. The presence of God almost seems monotonous in a way… and we become dead to the reality that apart from him we cannot do a thing (John 15:5).
Putting your Christian life on automatic pilot is the same thing as “walking in the flesh.” When we become unaware, when we take something so precious for granted, our prayers become tedious, our witnessing becomes dry, our jobs become lackluster, and relationships sag under the weight of selfishness. What’s worse, our relationship to the Lord turns into a chore. The Lord seems to lose vitality, he becomes a wooden icon in our hearts, a mere measuring rod for our behavior, someone who purchased our salvation awhile back, someone we believe in, in a general sort of way, but then I get on with life as usual.
It happens when we forget to inhale his life-giving Spirit on a moment-to-moment basis. It happens when we fail to see the God of grace as our very life and breath. It happens when we take our Savior for granted. Oh, how could we take so great a salvation for granted?
Nothing is more mechanical than when we attempt to live a supernatural life apart from God. This is why the apostle tells us in Romans 6:11 to “Count ourselves… alive to God in Christ Jesus.” To “count” means to take a daily inventory, to consciously consider yourself “alive, oh my goodness, I’m alive – we’re alive to God in Christ Jesus.” He is the Breath of Life we reach for every moment of every day. Inhale his love, and you can’t help but exhale gratitude and gratefulness.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
www.joniandfriends.org
© Joni and Friends