Thursday, April 18, 2013

Where the Spirit is...

Those who have known me a long time will know that there are few things that I enjoy more than singing praise.  It's been a bit challenging the past few years, however, as my lungs haven't enjoyed living in the intense smog of our other home.


This photo will give you a bit of an idea of what it is like.  This is the sun.  It's not sunset or hidden in the clouds.  It's just the sun in the afternoon of a normal day-----behind the smog.  Let's just say you don't ever have to worry about sunburn in the city!

One of our kids commented the other day that it's amazing seeing the stars in the New Zealand night sky.  And how they've realized that there are children growing up in the urban environment above who have never seen the stars before!!!  

Well, all of this is hard on the lungs.  After we arrived in NZ I could literally still taste the smog as I expelled the stuff from my chest for the next couple of weeks.  But now after eight months of breathing the clean air of NZ something in my chest and head has changed again.  I've lost a slight wheeze I had while exercising.  And best of all I can suddenly sing with a freedom I forgot that I had!!! While I'm happy to make that sacrifice again later of loosing a bit of my voice, I'm rejoicing in the new found freedom right now. 

The air that we breathe makes a difference.  Life giving air.

I find it interesting that after Je3us left this earth that the Helper who came is The Spirit.  Something unseen around us that gives life.  Like air.

I keep meditating on this:  

"For the L0rd is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the L0rd is there is freedom."  
2 Cor. 3:17

Freedom.  I want that!  I want to BE all about that.  

I want to breathe His Spirit like air.  I want, like air, for Him to fill every empty space.  Breathing in, breathing out.  Purifying.  Restoring. Giving life, energy, strength.

I want to be as dependent on Him as air so that I breathe in His Presence like it's second nature without conscious thought; not gasping desperately as a last resort as I'm fading away.

I want His Spirit to be the vehicle that delivers what I say, like air over my vocal chords, so that what I breathe out is Him to the world around me.

I know that this isn't an overnight process.  It will take time, like breathing smog out of my lungs. I've been at it for quite a while, yet it will realistically take a lifetime. At times it won't be pretty as I expel things that shouldn't have been breathed in in the first place--the 'smog' of a sinful world and the natural state of my soul in it.  But with practice I will soon breathe more freely, more deeply, and more fluently of His Spirit.  And find more and more freedom!

And unquenchable JOY!!!!
(Doesn't this photo just make you smile?)

The song on my heart today: (click here to hear!)