Breathe

Pneuma: Greek, noun, air in motion, breath, wind, and in a religious context for spirit or soul.

Right now, you are breathing. And until I mentioned it, you probably weren’t thinking about. It’s just something that happens in life. As someone who with asthma and sleep apnea, my relationship with breathing is literally troubled. On good days, I live as any other person, and the in and out flow of air happens without a thought or care. On bad days, I cough, and hack, and wheeze and fight. It’s not fun - imagine drowning without water. The natural reaction is to try to fight against the attack. The real trick is to relax and focus on steady, deep breathing. Panic makes the attack worse. Panic rarely helps any situation.

In both Jewish and Christian traditions, our breath was a metaphor for God’s spirit living within us. God breathing life into Adam is what sets humans apart from the rest of creation - the sacred spirit of ruach living inside the mud-created body. To illustrate that intimate relationship, Jesus playfully confuses Nicodemus weaving together a saying using breathe, wind and Spirit, which in Greek are all the Greek word pneuma, into a single phrase.

In most of our life, the presence of God’s Holy Spirit within us is something we don’t think about. It just is. When times are good, we become complacent and even apathetic to God’s presence in our lives. But there are times when we struggle, when God seems absent and separate. The natural reaction is to panic; to grasp for any small glimpse of the divine, regardless of the source or even the cost to others. We flail out at flashy preachers, kitschy memorabilia, or trite platitudes.The real trick is to find moments of calm in the midst of the chaos of life: the still, small voice that Elijah discovers after the earthquake, the presence of the sleeping Savior on the stormy sea, the indwelling of your divine creator hidden in your very breath.

Take a few moments to breath today - nice, slow, easy breaths. Add a few moments of stillness to your daily prayer routine. So when the storms and chaos of life break through and it’s hard to catch your breath from rushing around, you’ll be in practice to recenter, refocus, and remind yourself of the breath and Spirit dwelling within you.