Breath

Okay, I know, I know, it's been over a month so here it goes...

I have learned  this past month or two what it is truly like to be surrounded by Christians. And I don't mean those people that say it but don't live it. I'm talking about people who I can wake up, walk down the hall, and first thing I see is them on the couch. And the first thing out of their mouth to me is "Jill! Listen to this!" and they proceed to tell me about a sermon they watched online from Mars Hill Church, or about what God is doing and how He is moving, or even what they hear from God. And I know that these people are the people who have had, in the past few weeks, a bigger impact on my life than friends I have known for years.

It's amazing to me that sometimes, we wake up and go about our daily lives and forget that God is there. For a day, a week, a month, even a year or more, we forget and ignore Him. Leaving Him to stand knocking. And eventually, maybe we stop feeling Him knock or we have done something in sin that has caused Him to turn His back on us (or spit us out of His mouth).  Maybe we have turned our back on Him.

I was in chapel the other day, and the speaker was a doctor in Africa.  He made us hold our breath and put our hands in the air.  When we couldn't hold our breath anymore, we were supposed to lower our hand.  Well, I didn't last much longer than 30 seconds. And by the end of 2 minutes, every hand was down.  And then he said this and it has stuck with me ever since.

"We can't go more than two minutes without the need to breathe, so why do we think we can go days, months, years without God? He is the breath of life."

So this made me think. Why DO we think we can go for more than 30 seconds, minutes, days, months, or years without God guiding our way?  Is it because we don't want to give up our independence and we're afraid of stepping out from behind our sin and manning up? Or is it because if we lose our sin, we will lose our identity? I don't know about you, but for 17 years, I was afraid of who I would be without my sin. I was afraid to take of the mask and let my life be defined by something...no, someONE else.  But there is good news, God will and has placed some amazing people in each of our lives to help build us up and hold us accountable for our actions. You just have to wake up and notice.