Good morning…
“Your post today inspired me to think about how to deal with ourselves when we start to panic,” a friend texted after reading yesterday’s message, Trust God In Life’s Noise. She continued, “We are told to ‘breathe.’ What if we thought of that breathing (which should be long on the inhale and even longer on the exhale) as breathing in the Holy Spirit, allowing God to settle in our own hearts and bodies, and then breathing out, slowly sharing God with the people in our environment (which may be causing the stress)? What if we allowed ourselves to take care of ourselves and others by putting on our own oxygen mask (breathing in) and then helping others (breathing out)?”
“I love these thoughts,” I texted her back. “I have often heard before, ‘Breathe in God’s Spirit and breathe out your stress.’ This is a good image, but yours is even a more excellent way. Who wants the air in our environment filled with our exhaled stress? We are designed to breathe in the Holy Spirit, letting God fill, sustain, and nurture us for an expanded-lung moment THEN we are invited to breathe out the Holy Spirit, filling, sustaining, nurturing others. Through inhaling and exhaling thoughts through our phones, it feels like we have been gifted with an encouraging blog post for tomorrow morn.”
But earnestly desire and strive for the greater gifts [if acquiring them is going to be your goal]. And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one of the choicest graces and the highest of them all: unselfish love] (1 Corinthians 12:31, AMP).
…Sue…
