How learning to breathe could save our souls
Tuesdays are my current favorite days as these are the mornings I have the joy of meeting with a small group of paid subscribers via zoom. For six weeks we are reading and studying the book by John Ortberg titled Soul Keeping.
At the beginning of each session, we watch a 25 minute video teaching together. These videos are incredibly soul filling, but what’s even more special is the next hour we spend as a group discussing questions from the video. I’ve found myself marinating in some of our conversations days after meeting. Today I’m sharing with you one I’ve been pondering since our last session.
John explained how our souls crave grace and how what we need most is to learn to live in grace with God. He gave the example of abiding in the vine. It’s a moment by moment experience. However, we tend to allow our souls to wither and die because when our souls need grace for sustenance, we often turn to fillers instead, which causes this disintegration of the soul.
After explaining how Jesus lived with a rhythm of grace in, grace out -never ceasing, he challenged us to make parallels to this rhythm of grace and our rhythm of breathing.
Our souls were created by God to be well and at rest when we are a continual flow of grace. We are taking in His grace moment by moment. Then we turn around and we let that grace flow out to the world around us.
We were NOT created to be grace hoarders. He doesn’t give us grace so we can stockpile it in case of emergency. We are to trust Him so deeply that we know we don’t need to save grace for later. Instead, we are to receive it then release it. Just like breathing.
Without breath we have no life. Life is in the breath. When God formed Adam, He breathed into Him the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). Without grace, the soul has no life.
When I think of salvation and how it’s by the grace of God, I think of how we receive the gift of salvation though we don’t deserve it. It’s a gift. It’s God’s grace to us. When I think of daily life, God gives us grace for the circumstances we walk through. His daily grace is not meant as a one time transaction.
For it to be truly well with our souls, we must learn to live in the correct cycles of grace.
Grace in, grace out. Grace in, grace out.
Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.
God didn’t create us to take one deep breath and hold it for the rest of our lives. We would die within a few minutes. Yet that is how we often try to live on the grace He offers.
Several years ago I began seeing a doctor to help me heal from a stomach ulcer I developed due to stress from a cross country move and homeschooling with 3 young children. He recommended a book to me called The Healing Power of the Breath - Simple Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety.
Let me preface this by saying, I don’t agree with many aspects of this book, as it references techniques taken from yoga, Buddhist meditation, etc. However, what he taught about the science of the breath was fascinating to me. And the fact that so many other religions and non-christian practices also see the benefits of breathing techniques just magnifies the wonder of our Creator. If you do skim the book, ignore any instructions to chant. I literally only focused on the breathing techniques that would help my body operate as God intended. Bypass all the meditation and eastern practices.
This book started by teaching a method called Coherent Breathing. In short this is taking only 5 breaths per minute. You have no idea how hard this was and is for me. I’m a shallow breather, which means I’m not taking many deep breaths. I also discovered because of my failure to know how to breathe correctly, I often held my muscles very tight. Slowing my breathing showed me how I was storing tension in my body.
Think about why we are told to “just take a deep breath,” when someone is trying to help us calm down. Or they will say, “it’s ok, just breathe.” If breathing is so natural, why do we need to be reminded to take a deep breath or to slow down and breathe? I think it’s because what happens to our body when breath is allowed to heal us.
“By increasing parasympathetic activity and decreasing sympathetic activity, coherent breathing balances and stabilizes the stress response system, helping you to react more appropriately rather than with excess fear, anger, or feelings of helpless immobility. The increased parasympathetic activity calms the mind, slows the heart, lowers blood pressure, reduces inflammation, and strengthens stress resilience.” (Brown & Gerbard, p. 134)
While breath is vital for longterm life, it’s also used in our moment by moment needs of living healthy and well. And so is grace.
What if we connected our breathing to the grace of God? What if when we are slowing down our breathing in order to handle life, we reminded ourselves in that very moment to receive in His grace as we inhale, and when we exhale we remember we are channels of grace.
Grace is necessary for life - life in eternity with God. Grace is also necessary to live a life of peace and joy moment by moment no matter the circumstances.
Lord, as we slow our breathing, we are reminded you aren’t in a hurry. You aren’t frightened, panicked, or stressed. Nor should I be because I am the recipient of your grace. As I breathe in, I’m remembering to take in your grace in this moment. As I exhale, I pray I would go out into this world and life and extend this grace to each person and circumstance I encounter. I am not a grace hoarder. Just as I was not created by You to live on one life-sustaining breath, I was not created to hold onto your grace. I was created to live IN Your grace. Receiving and giving. I trust you to be a constant source of grace in my life. Thank you for the breath you give and the grace that never dries up. In Jesus’ name, Amen