God-breathed

Breathed Out By God.  I picked up bronchitis somewhere over the bridge into the New Year. It is mild but constant. Every breath is labored, like pulling oxygen through wet cotton. (Not like, it is exactly that!) Medicine helps, as do hot tea and honey, but the body simply must relinquish its determination that a threat is present and authorize the release of its extra, defensive layer of fluid that has swelled in my throat and lungs. (Sheesh, thanks for working so well, Mr. Immune System!)

As with every new day, there is a new lesson to learn, even while I am chewing on menthol cough drops like they are candy. (Not like, they are candy!) The inhale-exhale rhythm is physically remarkable and spiritually illustrative. We were designed to inhale, to take in a foreign molecule (oxygen) that exists naturally in a form that must undergo a change to become biologically useful. Respiration then infuses the converted oxygen to our bloodstream, which distributes usable oxygen to every cell in our body. Then, before we exhale, we link waste molecules (carbon dioxide) to the spent oxygen delivery system and carry it out again. The failure of any of these mechanisms is fatal within a few minutes. Inhale, exhale—even when asleep—inhale, exhale.

It is amazing that God created oxygen before he fashioned lungs to need oxygen. He provided air before he formed humans to require air. And he outbreathed his word before we inbreathed anything else in this world. It is no accident that God grabbed the inhale-exhale rhythm to explain not only the spiritual necessity of his word to life, but also its order: exhale-inhale. He provides before we need. Need comes later. God always precedes. Even if/when we use the air that God created and provided to formulate curses for hurling back at him—he provided that, too. Hang on, I need another cough drop because that sort of takes my breath away. (Not sort of, it does!)

“All Scripture is breathed out by God” (1 Timothy 3:16a). The Greek word is unique: theopneustos. Theo means God. Pneust means wind, or breath, or spirit. Put them together in an adjectival form to modify “all Scripture” and you get: God-exhaled. The word of God is the breath of God pushed out of his lungs, so to speak, which results in the inspired (think: inhaled, or inhalable) Scriptures. For eternal life we inhale that which God exhaled; we believe. All our spiritual activities, whether reading, praying, worshiping, teaching, evangelizing, fellowshipping, contemplating, lamenting, etc., are fundamentally built upon inhaling that which God has exhaled. *Whew*