each breath

Over the course of a minute all the blood of your body passes through the lungs to receive fresh oxygen and to get rid of carbon dioxide.  Breathing is the process that accomplishes this.  Breathing calls for a coordinated effort, regulated by the brain and empowered by muscles of the abdomen and rib cage.  For the most part, we don't think about breathing.  It just happens.  If we exercise, our  brain responds to chemical triggers and prompts the muscles kick into a higher gear to accelerate the rate of breathing.  The actual exchange of good gases for bad occurs in tiny air sacs with very thin walls.  Moving from higher to lower concentrations, oxygen moves from the lung to the blood and carbon dioxide moves from the blood to the lung.  This way, the life-giving blood is refreshed to bring all the nutrients every cell of the body need for maintenance, repair and growth.  I know of a young woman who had such difficulties with her breathing process that she had to have both lungs replaced several years ago.  This was a very painful and trying experience.  She has recently found out that she'll need another total lung replacement to extend her life.  Despite the pain that lies ahead, she will pursue that opportunity.  She is under 30 years of age and recently was married.  Life is indeed precious to her and worth clinging to!

 

For our natural lives to continue we need a dependable way to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide.  For our spiritual lives to thrive we need a way to feed our inner spirit while expelling the sin that tends to build up.  As natural as breathing should be the input of God's presence through the reception of His word and the expelling of unclean attitudes and actions through a process of spiritual conviction and confession.  Just as this exchange of life occurs across a delicate membrane in the lungs, so does the spiritual exchange occur across the delicate membrane of our individual spiritual hearts.  Life requires this two-way exchange.

 

Job 32:8 But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

 

blessings,

Rob Smith

http://2daysthought.blogspot.com/