Fighting For Breath

I used to be quite a grouch when I was younger. One symptom of this was that I hated movies which you could describe as "inspirational". You know the sort: the ones ending with either a slow clap, an "Oh Captain, my Captain" moment, or sometimes both. I don't know why I hated these so much. You could say I found them overly sentimental, that life didn't really have these moments, blah-blah-blah. Then I saw a few genuinely inspirational movies and found that, sometimes, being inspired by a movie was a good thing.

There's still remnants of this old grouchiness in me, and some of it may be justified I suppose. I hate it, for instance, when iTunes describe Christian music as "Inspirational", regardless of actual genre. But I'm starting to see that, even when such terms are used as meaningless labels, we can wear them as badges of honour. I think I first began to realise this when I saw an old first-aid poster which used the word "inspiration" as the opposite of "expiration": meaning, of course, to breathe in. Which is basically what the word means: to take in breath. And who can possibly think that taking in breath is a bad thing?

In the Christian life, this is particularly important. It's very easy to think that, when you become a Christian, you breathe in once and then you're set for life. Most of us would at least accept that we need to breathe in once a week (we call that "Church"), and some of us breathe some mornings or evenings (we call that "Quiet Time"). But we still more or less believe that, once you're a Christian, your spiritual walk is a done deal. Yet there are far too many people I know who were once Christians and aren't any more to think that this could possibly be the case. I know all the theological debates, and it is a complex topic, but at the simplest level this is what I think happens - they stop breathing. I've found the temptation to do this in my own life far more strongly than I ever expected. And why ever would we do that? Why would we ever stop breathing? Because breathing is a reflex that we take for granted, and then sometimes it becomes harder than we think - when under pressure, when afraid, when hurried. Most of us do it at least occasionally - think of the phrases "shortness of breath" or "hyperventilating". And so we can do this spiritually just as much as we can physically. The spiritual version is every bit as dangerous as the physical version - more dangerous, because Christ is the source of all life, and being cut off from this is to be cut off from all kinds of life, however the outside may appear.

Think for a moment about the word "inspiration". Look at what word it comes from: "spirit". That's because, in Latin, "spiritus" can mean "spirit" as we understand it, as well as "breath" or "wind". Then look at the Biblical words for the same thing: "ruach" (Hebrew) and "pneuma" (Greek). They also, bizarrely, have that same double-meaning: spirit, and breath/wind. If you know anything about language, and know that Latin, Greek and Hebrew have remarkably little linking them together, you will be amazed to see that this link between breath and spirit is at the very core of the word we use to describe each. So to live without inspiration is not to live.

It's tempting, I know, to stop fighting for breath. It's a temptation that, right now, I face daily. But I won't stop fighting, because the moment I do, my life ends. So let's commit everyday - to be inspired. Read the Bible, pray, talk to other believers, be inspired by the life stories of other believers. But never stop being inspired by God. Never stop breathing Him in.