Monday, February 29, 2016

Leap Life

Leap Year!


What an interesting concept.  We’ve adopted a way of counting time that isn’t quite exact, so every four years we’ll just add an extra day to the calendar and that will let us get back on track.  We’ll take a leap and be back in sync.

There is an interesting article on the history of Leap Year here, but it has brought two thoughts to my mind related to this concept and our lives with Christ.  In some ways they seem contradictory, but nevertheless, I offer them here for the reader to ponder.

First - It seems to me like there is an ongoing invitation from God for us to be so in sync with Him that we don’t really need to play catch up.  He calls us to walk with him in a way that is present - right here and right now - in this moment with Him.  No need to leap back into sync, just walk hand in hand with our Savior - today!

Second - It also seems like the life of faith is all about leaping - like all the time - not just to catch up with a calendar.  We are reminded that we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), which means there will most likely be regular leaps of faith we must take in order to stay in sync with the Lord.  This life we live with Him will be full of moments of stretch and challenge - leaps we must take with Him.

And maybe those two ideas aren’t actually disconnected.  Maybe as we walk hand in hand with our Lord each day, present in the moment, it will be much easier to recognize when God says, “Ok. Time to leap!”

Happy Leap Life!!


Saturday, January 30, 2016

The Breath of God

I was recently reading a book and came across an idea (at least the wording of an idea) I hadn't ever really thought about before.

The Spirit of God is closer even than our breath. (my paraphrase)

In order to understand this idea, we have to remember that in the Old Testament the word for Spirit is the same word that also gets translated wind and breath - ruach.  And in the New Testament the word that gets translated Spirit is also the same word that gets translated into wind and breath - pneuma.

Ruach = wind, breath, Spirit

Pneuma = wind, breath, Spirit

So it leads us to consider that even as we breath in and out, the Spirt is also constantly moving within us.

And if you think about what happens physiologically when we breath - every inhale brings in oxygen which gets exchanged with carbon dioxide in our blood through our lungs - our breath doesn't just stay in our lungs, it gets transported to every single corner of our bodies!    Most of the time I just think about my breath coming in and out of my lungs, but this idea of the Spirit of God being even closer than our breath made me realize it actually works its way into every nook and cranny of my whole being!

Which leads me to also realize that this happens all the time without me even having to think about it! I don't ever have to think about breathing.  It's not as if it's a conscious reality on my part.  Even as I have been wring these ideas and thinking about breathing, I haven't been aware that I am just sitting here breathing (until right now while I am actually thinking about it, but I'm not saying, "breath...breath...breath...").

I want to be a person who is allowing the very Breath of God to flow into every nook and cranny of my life without me ever having to think about it!  It's as natural as breathing and it doesn't just go part of the way in - it permeates all the way to the very core of my being.

May the Spirit of God be closer than my breath!