Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Breathe Life Into Me



I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly I needed to pray. But a place for this indiscernible prayer hollowed out my insides. I felt the atrophy as one feels weakened by a fever. I felt in need…a quaking in me to ask. 

But ask what?

How could I, would I take the time to pinpoint the longing with a myriad of needs pressing in on me, pulling me, and spinning me with tornadic force?

Then I stepped outside and captured this photo…




And blue as the sky, it pierced me—what I needed to ask. All that had begun to dry up and brittle synched with clarity. A strengthening of my bones sprung from the asking.

Breathe life into me.

In the hurried.
“Mom, I can’t find my cleats” two minutes before practice. Breathe life into me.

In the stress.
Awake after hours of wrestling with sleep, declaring myself the loser and retreating downstairs for a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats. Breathe life into me.

In the weakness.
I can’t go through this again. This loss. This turmoil of the familiar bleeding into this relationship. Remove the pain. Breathe life into me.

In all the change.
New job. Church. Close friends moving. House renovations. Writing decisions. Contact with loved ones. Breathe life into me.

In the clogged funnel of roles.
Work a little longer. Get child to orthodontist. Pump out another few thousand words. Lungs begging for a solid run. Book club. Bible. Dog threw up. Teacher appreciation day. Breathe life into me.

In all that I am.
Wounded. Saved. Wrecked. Amped. Sensitive. Creative. Passionate. Questioning. Feisty. Restless. Open. Vulnerable. Roaring. Wandering the endless maze of my synapses. Breathe life into me.

And all I’ll never be.
Perfect. Breathe life into me.

And looking up into the shock of this tree I woke up to it, to what I needed.

For life to be breathed into my soul.

Because moments pass quickly and days are swallowed whole in the blink of time. I ached for my life to have breath restored, surging in me, my spiritual lungs on fire again.

As I write this I still feel the whisper of his breath grazing my soul, filling the hollow place of asking, needing, wanting, lacking. And it is, indeed, good.

And life is revived. Even in the asking. In the humbling act of petitioning, he’s already exhaling. Giving and giving and giving.

Have you ever been blessed in the asking?

“God, the Master, told the dry bones, ‘Watch this: I’m bringing the breath of life to you and you’ll come to life. I’ll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You’ll come alive and you’ll realize that I am GOD!’” Message 37:4

26 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your heart. I really needed this today!

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  2. This post blessed me, Wendy. Encourage me. Thank you.

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  3. I love this. Beautiful and encouraging.

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  4. Sometimes there are no words to express what other words have done for the soul. Thank you, Wendy. I can see God smiling at you.

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  5. Wendy: This is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing this inspirational piece with us.

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  6. That picture is STUNNING.
    I've actually been praying a similar prayer. I've been feeling stressed and busy and I just wanted my spirit renewed in Him and to have my true Joy back. He heard me and is working in me.

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    1. I swear it has to be my favorite thing to photograph. This is a crazy time of year. A friend with older kids used to tell me and I'd laugh, thinking bring it on. Now I'm kind of wishing someone would take at least some of it away.

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  7. So often we forget that, don't we? That God is the giver of life and all things good...and we can strive and strive and get lost in it all, struggling for breath. When all we really need to do is ask.

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    1. Something so beautiful and humbling in the asking. Knowing our place.

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  8. Oh, Wendy, you ministered to me today in a mighty way, as you so often do. I've been feeling parched for quite some time and appreciate the reminder that all I have to do at times like this is ask the Lord to fill me up, to energize me, to breathe life into me.

    Hugs to you as you seek life in the midst of the busyness, brokenness, and butterflies-in-the-stomach days.

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    1. Thanks for the viral hugs & for the encouragement, Keli! You are so good for that.

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  9. Oh my goodness, Wendy, I know this. You put it so powerfully. I can only follow your footsteps and ask the same--breathe life into me. Thank you.

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  10. Your writing is pure poetry, Wendy. We get so wrapped up in the doing that we forget to allow the Lifegiver to pour His life in us. (The last phrase is from a song in, The Witness.)

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    1. I think that's the part of being a doer--a mover that trips me up...remembering who appoints me, who fuels me with strength. Thanks for your kind words!

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  11. This is wonderful, Wendy, and just what I needed to hear today. As Susan said, we get so wrapped up in doing that we forget the important things. Time to unwrap today.

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    1. I love that this is reaching people--that it reached you, Karen! I know it was a message I really needed restored.

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  12. So beautiful, Wendy! Loved this quote: Because moments pass quickly and days are swallowed whole in the blink of time.

    So true. And nice shot!

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    1. Thanks Melanie! I like to pretend I know what I'm doing with my camera. ;-) I see babies all the time lately and I keep wondering how my kids grew out of that stage so fast.

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Taking Time

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