I went whitewater rafting in college with a guy I was dating and his family. Growing up in the Carolinas, I’d been rafting plenty of times before on the Ocoee and Nantahala. I was used to being on the river. But this day, I almost didn’t survive the trip. Our raft hit a rapid, and I popped out. The next thing I knew I was trapped under the raft. There was an eddy wall above my head. This is when an eddy (a current heading upstream) meets the regular current and creates a swirling of water and waves. The raft was caught in this swirl and blocked me from coming up for air. I wear contacts so I usually don’t open my eyes in water, but in sheer panic, I opened my eyes to orient myself since I couldn’t breathe. All I saw was yellow and a ton of bubbles. I tried moving the raft as it sat still over my helmeted head. River rafts are heavy and with six people weighing this one down, it was not budging. I closed my eyes and thought – “You are almost out of breath and the raft is not moving, so you move. Make your way to an edge of the raft with your hands.” With my eyes closed, I felt the bottom of the raft with my hands and moved my body through the water under the raft. The current resisted me, but I fought my way to an edge of the raft, felt for the rope that ran alongside the raft, clinched onto the rope, and pulled my body from under the raft. I will never forget that first breath I took. It was life.
I told this story the other week when I spoke to high school students in chapel at the school where I teach. My chapel topic was how Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16), and I wanted to connect my students to how critical breath is for our survival, specifically how critical God’s breath is for our survival.
As I was preparing my talk, I thought about the places in God’s Word where his breath is mentioned. I found four significant references to God’s breath in Scripture.
- God breathed his breath of life into mankind at creation (Gen. 2:7)
- God gave up his breath when he died on the cross (Mark 15:37, Luke 23:46)
- God breathed the Holy Spirit onto his disciples (John 20:22)
- God breathed out his Word (2 Tim. 3:16)
Our breath is from God. We have breath in our lungs because God gave us his breath when he created us. Then, Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross so we could have life, and as the resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit onto his disciples. The breath of God is a power source, and we have access to that power source through his Word, which he masterfully breathed out using forty something authors to tell his story of redemption and rescue. Like that good, long, deep breath I took when I came up from being trapped under the raft, we are meant to inhale God’s exhaled breath in his Word.
My heart ached preparing for this talk because students are growing up in a culture teaching them to inhale and exhale
- Substances – to escape and numb their pain
- Their own selves – by being consumed with the words they text, post, and tweet
- Others – by consuming them to get what they want
The teachers of this current student culture are people like Ariana Grande who sings in “7 Rings” I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it, or Panic! at the Disco who proclaim in “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” I see it, I want it, I take it.
Take, consume, and blurt out whatever you want whenever you want . . . these are the messages coming from our world.
If we’re honest, we think our words are more important than God’s words. We are much more prone to wanting to hear ourselves talk then wanting to listen to God talk through his Word. Guesstimate how many times a day you think about your words – the ones you speak, text, or post. Do you ever think – Is anyone benefiting from my words? Is what I’m saying or posting [or blogging :)] necessary information?
Inhaling God’s Word is actually a very logical practice. If I were a car that ran on diesel fuel, I need to stay filled up with diesel fuel. Put any other fuel in me, and I won’t run correctly. My design as a diesel car is not meant for any other fuel but diesel. In the same way, my design as an image bearer of God is meant for the fuel of God’s Word. He made me with his breath; therefore, I must fuel myself with his breath from his Word.
I was walking across campus the other day with a colleague who said she was suffering from headaches caused by allergies from the autumn season. Her comment made me think about fall. Do you know that leaves fall because they are losing oxygen? They aren’t breathing. They are literally starving themselves from the trees’ nutrients. Do you realize that we become like those leaves, falling and eventually losing life, when we starve ourselves from inhaling God’s Word. It’s his breath, and it’s life-giving. I hope you find yourself turning to God’s breath. It is your correct source for fuel. Breathe him in.