Breathe In.
Breathe in His Strength.
Breathe Out.
Breathe out my weakness.
Breathe In.
Breathe in His Glory.
Breathe Out.
Breathe out my shame.
Breathe In.
Breathe Out.
Breathe In Him.
Breathe Out Me.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Such a glorious exchange! Take in His Constancy, His Holiness, His Rightness. Take in Himself.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Psalm 150:6
Some days I need to remind myself of this great exchange more than others. Some days I’m so caught up in doing life myself that I forget that it isn’t for me to “do.” Breathe in His life. Breathe out my life. Breathe in His intentions. Breathe out my intentions.
But it is the spirit of a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding. Job 32:8
I can get so caught up in trying to solve life, as if its some type of puzzle, but I don’t have all the pieces, He does. Breathe in His efforts. Breathe out my efforts. I don’t have all the pieces, and yet I keep trying to solve everything as if I do, as if I must, as if the whole of creation is relying on me alone, as if my capabilities are all that is between me and complete failure. I’m so glad that isn’t true.
I am so weak, I freely admit this. I have so little true capabilities in being able to handle this load called life. I’ve never claimed perfection, and if you expect it from me you’ll be disappointed. I’m flawed and frail and weak and real.
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7
Breathe out! Breathe out the flawed, the frail, the weak, the real. Breathe in! Breathe in the Perfect, the Steady, the Strong, and Even More Real.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 33:6
This is what our walk is. A daily exchange of His strength for our fragility. A daily exchange of His wholeness for our brokenness.
And yet so often we don’t live like it.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Mark 8:35-37
We live like this walk is supposed to be a crutch of some sort, as if this walk is God adding to us so that we can be enough. Breathe In. But we’ve missed an integral part of this dynamic. Breathe Out.
It isn’t so much that God is a crutch or a steadying force, some addition to our lives. He’s not the cane, He’s the legs. He’s not a bottle of pills to keep our burnt out bodies going, He’s a body replacement. All of Him, replacing all of me.
This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:22-24
And I don’t get lost in this exchange. Rather I am found in it. My true self shines brightly, because we were always meant to be one, He and I.
Always meant to be one. Not just in part but the whole.
One plus one equaling one. Not Seventy Percent Me, Plus Thirty Percent Him. Not even one minus one plus one, because I am never diminished. One Plus One Equaling One.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6
But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:17
As I am subtracted, as I let go of self, I do not disappear. But still, the exchange is real. My rags for His riches, but first I must let go of the rags, and accept the riches. And His riches become my riches. His Glory in me is my glory. I am not Him, but we are one.
But my mind doesn’t understand this. It’s beyond what I can equate and break down in my reasoning. It’s pure and simple and completely beyond me. The human in me wishes to understand, and in doing so makes it more complex than it needs to be. Will I ever understand completely? Maybe on Heavens door. But do I really need to understand?
The very realness of love can not be broken down into reasonable bits to be fully known to my mind. Trying to do so somehow diminishes its depth.
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savoir, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7
God is love.
Breathe in His love.
Breathe out My pain.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
I exchange a broken, fragmented, heart for His whole one, I am not less in this exchange, but made complete. My love, which is flawed and frail and unable to surmount the pains of life, exchanged for His perfect love, that never fails.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Psalm 150:6
~Joy Aletheia Stevens
Photo Credit: by Courtney (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo Credit: by Shelby H. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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