"In a Single Breath" by Sue Wright
It’s always nice to see something hailed as worthwhile-- even holy-- you’ve been doing by instinct most of your life. For instance, the use of breath prayers illustrated in Second’s Lenten Booklet which explores Mindful Faith this year.
I’ve understood the power of “intentional” breathing since I volunteered as an assistant Childbirth Instructor in the 70’s. New to me and the women I was teaching was the technique of costal breathing, sometimes known as diaphragmatic breathing. We expectant mothers not only had to learn how to perform it, but also practice this new breathing until it became natural. Once we felt the oxygen in our bodies moving in a new direction—sideways instead of up and down—it was a welcome sensation and could be helpful in disrupting the intensity of contractions accompanying childbirth.
No more babies in the house, it has been the advent of technology sending me back to the usefulness of a deliberate inhale and exhale now and then-- most notably when tackling the challenge of a new computer or deciphering the features of our most recent small appliance buy. Acknowledging the ease to which I can become frustrated reaching into a box full of parts and instructions, I have learned to gauge my mood before I start a project, wait until that mood is good, and then take a deep, cleansing breath before heading into the fray. Not to brag, but most of the time this preparative routine has worked. I’ve assembled two desktops in my day, a couple of printers, and three Roomba-vacs.
But back to the subject of breath and prayer—to be exact, breath prayers-- the sacred method of thinking part of a short prayer as you breathe in and thinking the remainder of that prayer breathing out. Looking back, I’m heartened to say, God’s requested presence has often been paired with-- intrinsic to—most of my aforementioned project-focused inhales and exhales. Proof positive? Almost every time I have lifted my chest with determination before a gnarly task, I have automatically thought these words from Philippians 4:13 as I breathed —“I can do all things through Christ/ who strengthens me.”
Just lately, I was asked to officiate a good friend’s funeral, something I never would have dreamed I could do. Nevertheless, I said yes, and immediately began the weighty process of giving his life a spiritual perspective. No surprise, the moment I sat down at my computer to compose a bit of tribute and sermon for the service, I felt my lungs instantly fill with the airy support of God’s promise that “I can do all things through Christ.” Then noisily sighing in sync to the words, “who strengthens me,” I began to tap the keyboard with all the fresh resolve I needed and these words for a beginning: “If God is love, then thanks to Lew, you and I were touched by what’s most singularly divine in all of us—our capacity to feel with another human being, God’s love working in him or her and God’s love working in us—being us. Loving Lew provided you and me a chance to sense first hand, God’s love on earth as we spread that love to others. From 1 John 4:16: ‘God is love and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them.’”
May God’s love inspire each breath we pray. In Jesus name, amen.