Just Breathe
Written on September 26, 2014.
The people of Jericho had heard of Israel’s great victories.
They also knew that their city was easy city to seal up. If they weren’t able to get food and water, they wouldn’t be able to hold out for long, so they stockpiled in preparation. The preparation would mean that if the Israelites wanted to “hold out” until the city ran out of food and water, it would take a while.
When the Lord’s strategy was revealed, it must have looked a bit different than they thought. He asked the people, led by the priests to walk around Jericho for six days without saying a word, or making a sound.
On the seventh day, the people were told to shout and blow shofars. If I were to paraphrase it would be, “just breathe”. Here was a redemption of Moses and the rock. “Don’t hit anything. Don’t push on the walls or even touch a stone. Breathe. Release my ruah (breath) into the situation. Release the inheritance of spirit you have given.” And the walls came tumbling down.
God could have made us anyway He wanted. We know the design we have now, but I’m sure there were options. Did we have to breathe? Only if we want to be like Him!
As a people, we have come to a place where we hold our breath. We are consistently waiting for what the enemy is going to do to us next. We wait for the assault. We hold our breath over situations instead of releasing the breath of our creator into them.
I was in labor with our third child. I had naturally delivered the first two, so no worries. Except, it was Saint Patrick’s Day and in some sort of phenomenon, every pregnant women near her due date was in labor too. The hallways were lined with panting women. We were one of the first to check in, so we were nestled in a room. Or so we thought.
A decision was made to induce the women who had been in labor for a few hours so we would deliver faster. The drip coming from the bag above me, was not my friend. My contractions were so intense, but each check showed I was not progressing.
At one point, two nurses stood over me and talked about turning the level of inducement up three times. It didn’t seem like I was eligible for a vote either! In fact, I seemed to have gone invisible. All I knew was my contractions at that point were exactly the same as the ones I had when it was time to push with the others.
When my visibility returned, I voted for an epidural. My vote must have had a hanging chad, because it didn’t get counted. Scott was awesome, trying to get me to do the breathing exercises, but I couldn’t. The pain had gotten ahead of me and the fear of what it was going to feel like when they turned the torture device, I mean the inducement medicine up three times.
Scott asked if there was something I could have to just help me relax a little bit. Miraculously, there was. And this little dripping bag was my friend. In fact it was my greatest love for about thirty minutes.
I’m sure there are lots of technical terms to describe what the medicine did. I’ll say it simply. It helped me breathe again. My inability to do so before had stalled my labor. As soon as I began to breathe again, I was ready to deliver within minutes. The fact that my doctor was nowhere to be found at that moment is another story.
Just breathe. Let everything that has breath praise Him. It changes everything.
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