(part of the “Breathing Out” Lenten Series)

Scripture Passage:  John 20: 21-22

²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

So, we’ve been breathing a lot this season.  We are about halfway through it all.  I think today marks the beginning of the second half of the Lenten season.  So, hopefully you’ve had some wonderful breathing exercises and have not hyperventilated. 

Just breathe…

As we know, the Scriptures often equate breath with life and God’s Spirit.  The Hebrew word is ruah, which though often translated as breath probably is better understood as the source of being, the essence of God.  It is God “breathing” the very Godself into us so that a piece of us is truly “God-breathed”.  But breathing requires that we open ourselves to receive.

Just breathe…

So, I was going to write some wordy treatise on breathing but in what I can only attribute to a personal revelation, I think nothing says more about breathing than breathing.

Just breathe…

To help with that, here is a poem that Diana Butler Bass had on her Lenten reflection a few days ago…(I would recommend her Substack “The Cottage” highly…look it up!)

BORN AGAIN
by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

You cannot get life, earn it, keep it, or store it up like money.
It is breath, Spirit.

You receive it. Then you release it,
and become open to receive again.

You cannot hold it. You must receive it. God gives it to you.

Let go of your life, accomplishments and mistakes,
all you deserve — good and bad —

and instead receive it anew from God in this moment,
a single breath.

Let your repentance be simply to breathe,
to receive and let go.

All the things you have to do and all the things you want to do
disappear into the breath.

It is a death and resurrection.
Let yourself disappear into the breath,
the spirit, and be born again.

Go slow enough to live in the breath,
to surrender the life you build and hoard,
and to live the life God gives you.

Falling and rising, your breath
is the gift of life from God,
made new in every moment.

Breathe gently.
Breathe deeply.
Breathe life.

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths. (Etty Hillesum)

Grace and Peace,

Shelli