Breathing Room

 

Just Breathe.  It helps, really.  When you're overwhelmed, frustrated, taken by surprise, confused, just breathe.  The reason we don't breathe, at least the reason I don't breathe is because I don't have any breathing room.  I commit, commit, commit and then do, do, do and sometimes I don't breathe because there just isn't any time to.  They say life happens in the margins, it’s no wonder when I don't have any margins I feel like the life is getting sucked right out of me.  I noticed this when I recently changed jobs.  

 

I really, really like my new job, because at my new job I have breathing room.  If all the pegs that are supposed to fit in a day's pegboard don't fit I have options.  At my new job my day is not so jam packed that if one of my appointments runs late or an unexpected matter comes up I panic.  I can make it work, because at my new job I have breathing room.  I like my home life much better when I have breathing room as well.  When I have my own ideas (and too many of them) about what needs to fit into a particular day I have no breathing room.  When my daughter wants to study an ant on the sidewalk, when my neighbor wants to chat, when someone knocks the coffee grounds all over the floor, when I spot the "detour ahead" sign, I don't panic or get frustrated or overwhelmed, I just breathe.  More than everything that I want to get done in life I want life, a breathing life.  

 

Time to watch an ant, time to listen to a friend in need, time to smile and joke as I clean up a spill, time to play I spy or make up a song while I sit in a traffic jam.  Time to breathe and for breathing not to be a luxury. While it sounds like an easy concept you may find it’s not so easy to apply.  For me the application comes packaged in the word commitment.  I commit to things I'm not really committed to because I want to please people or because I'm proud and I want to accomplish a certain something.  I commit because I'm committed to me, to my life, to my goals, I’m committed to my wanna be's rather than to God.  There is a lot to do in life and it seems like there isn't a lot of time.  But is it not true that God has the power to do all that must be done on this earth and He holds all the time in the world in His hands?  

 

Only God knows when this world will end and He's not worried about how He's going to fit everything in before it does.  We don't have to be in such a hurry all the time, God isn't.  On one hand we don't like waiting for God.  On the other hand (before He sends His wrath) we sure hope He waits for us, for us to slow down, to breathe; to breathe in His goodness, His life-giving power.  I'm over committed because I'm committed over and above Him.  Perhaps like me, you need to reassess your commitments and get back to your main one.  Perhaps like me, before you commit again you need to breathe.  

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”   Philippians 4:13 (ESV)