Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what he has done for me.
I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer.
Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.
Psalm 66:16-20
However we view the trying circumstances of our lives, one thing is certain: God walks with us through the fire and the water and longs to bring us to a place where we can breathe once again.
Disciplines–daily reading for 5/13/2020
Who would have thought when the reflection was written for this day in 2020, that references to ‘breathing once again’ would be so appropriate? The author talks about their spouse having respiratory issues and how relieving it was to be able to breathe again.
Besides the fact that this virus is attacking respiratory systems, as a society there is a feeling that isolation and separation is making it hard to breathe. It was true before, and now it’s worse. We feel like we’re under water or trapped. So not only are individuals who are sick struggling to breathe, we as a community are struggling to breathe.
In the midst of that, the Psalmist reminds us that God has not and will not abandon us. We can extol what God has done for us.
I’m not willing to say God ’caused’ or ‘sent’ this pandemic to ‘teach us a lesson,’ or anything like that. But I do think that God longs to bring us to a place where we can breathe again. Many of the things that had become part of our systems were suffocating breath. This pandemic in some ways is revealing how shallow our breathing had become, and is inviting us to clear out those things/influences/systemic realities that restrict full, deep, life-giving breath for all.
Reclaim nuclear relationships and invest in the humans with whom you are doing life — breathe.
Eliminate the separation between ‘celebrity’ and ‘non-celebrity’–remove the masks of perfection and success — breathe.
Give generously to those who are helping others — breathe.
Renovate systems that do not actually do what they say they do, and reconstruct them to serve the disadvantaged and marginalized — breathe.
Extend grace to all who are doing their best to get through the day…and are exhausted and overwhelmed — breathe.
Cherish face to face time and use technology to enhance community and connection — breathe.
Re-evaluate what (and who) tends to be considered ‘essential’ and direct resources and support accordingly — breathe.
Sure–there’s still lots of work to do and even as we begin to reclaim a sense of momentum and activity again, many of the cracks that have been revealed will likely get ignored again. But we can learn about ourselves. We can grow and strengthen. We can breathe again.