A conversation I had with my friend Summer while she, Karen, and I were driving from Vancouver/Longview to Seattle so that I can get the help I needed for my Subglottic Stenosis in my throat and the adventure I had in the ER. You can read about it in my post before this one titled “Where Is The Drano When You need it?”
The comment “people take breathing for granted”, I believe this statement. Here is why, when do you ever thank God for your ability to breathe. It is something we all do without thinking about. We do not have to say to ourselves I need to take in a deep breathe in order to give our bodies the vital oxygen we need to function. We do it automatically, without thinking, without even acknowledging the importance of breathing. The part of the body that hooks your head to your chest is not there just to connect the body, it is there to help you receive one of the greatest things that keep the body alive, oxygen.
Oxygen does so much for the body. I implore everyone to take 30 days and think about all the wonderful things you accomplish just because you breathe. Hugging your kids, petting your cat, driving a car, walking, cooking, mowing the lawn, gardening, walking to the bathroom, and best of all hugging people you love.
The reason for my harping on the simple of act of breathing is that right now I am not able to do so without some help. Friday evening I experienced something scary. I came close to dying, once again. The simple act of walking to the bathroom takes my breath away. I want people to realize that simply thanking God for letting me fill up my lungs with air so that I may accomplish things is a miraculous and amazing feeling. Why does it take me loosing something to realize how much I appreciate and love being able to do it? I also know that I am not the only one in the world who does not take the time to actually see the simple things around me. We focus on the fighting, politics, who and what God is, and who is right, who is wrong, who offended me, instead of the things that truly matter. The three things I know that matter are breathing, relationship, and knowing God. God says these things in His own words. And yet, we get our head stuck in the cement and not use the sledge hammer he provides us to break out.
1 Corinthians 12 says this about the body:
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
Back to me: God created us differently, yet, because of our humanness we are unable to appreciate the things that make us different. We cannot even accept ourselves when we are not the same as the people around us. God even says “the body is made up of many different parts and not just one part”. I know that I must make a conscious effort to take a body part in my own body and thank God for it, feel it acknowledge it, and accept it and love it despite its failings. Maybe that is where I want to start with breathing. How many of us truly know how we get oxygen and how our body uses it? We do not know, even though we don’t know we can still be thankful for its function. If I can love my body, then I am able to love the many different bodies that are around me that make up God’s ultimate body. I am going to quit now, because I am tired. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this subject.
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