A thought came to me this morning while I was at the rec center: “I NEED AIR!” I have been walking laps at the rec center in an effort to develop a more healthy lifestyle. In the last few weeks, however, I’ve hit a plateau; I can ?t walk any faster (without turning into one of those speed walkers, and that just wouldn’t be pretty), and I can ?t take any more time to walk. Granted, three miles a day, five days a week, is an amazing change in my sedentary lifestyle. But it isn’t enough.
I realized that the only way I am going to increase the effectiveness of my “workout” is to start jogging. (It was a sad and scary realization all at once.) So a few weeks ago I started running an occasional lap (which in the rec center is 1/11 of a mile). In the first week, I was able to jog three, non-consecutive laps. Eventually I was able to get up to six laps (more than half a mile, woohoo!).
This morning, June 13, I ran two consecutive laps. In all honesty it didn’t hurt any more than running a single lap, but I had to stop because I was gasping for breath. Immediately I thought of Psalm 42:1, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” And the song “Breathe” suddenly made a lot of sense to me: “This is the air I breathe, this is the air I breathe: your holy presence, living in me.”
I’m not saying that I have it down cold, but I think I finally get it. I sort of touched on the idea in the sermon on June 8 that we need to be desperate for God’s holiness and presence in our lives the way we are desperate for air. If we don’t breathe, we die. In the same way, if we don’t have God in our lives, we will die.
The thing is, I don’t know that I am at that point in my relationship with God. While I recognize that God has brought me to this point in my life, in my ministry, in my relationship with him, I’m not so sure that I have the same sense of desperation for God ?s presence that he seems to have for me. It ?s easy to identify God ?s ?obsession ? with people; all you have to do is look throughout the Bible and you can see that God is ready, willing, and able to do whatever it takes to restore his relationship with people. He is so desperate to get us back that he sent Jesus to die for us. Enough said, am I right?
So what ?s the evidence of my desperation for God? Why don ?t I feel like I ?m gasping for breath spiritually? I ?m pretty sure that when I check the fruit in my life (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control), it ?s not a matter of me being spiritually fit.
It ?s probably because I ?m not exerting myself. I ?ve gotten comfortable with the pace I am walking with God. But we all know that life isn ?t a ?stroll in the park ?; it ?s the ?rat race. ? How do we get to the point where we ?re so desperate for God ?s presence and holiness in our lives that we are gasping for him, as if we are out of breath? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:24: ?Run in such a way as to get the prize. ? We need to pick up the pace and run.
And eventually, I pray, the training will lead to a stronger, faster pace that God will sustain.
Thanks Bruce!!! I often find myself reciting John 15:5 to myself: –“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” When it seems my flesh is battling against my soul, I remember how Paul, in Romans chapter seven, mentioned how he couldn’t do what he wanted to do, but did what he did not want to do etc. etc. his list goes on and on. If you count all the “I’s” and “me’s” in those verses they add up to 18. The reason Paul was having trouble with that is he was the one trying to do it. This is why I remind myself everytime I get ready to do anything, that I will fail, good thing I belong to Christ now and am no longer mine!!! It is so true that “…apart from me, you can do nothing.” I believe nothing means nothing, not a little bit, or a little okay, or good enough, I think it means absolutely zero. (P.S. If you ever tell yourself it’s good enough, it probably isn’t.)