"I Can't Breathe..."

I can't tell you how many times over the past few weeks I've heard that statement..."I can't breathe...". Being that I work in an Allergy and Asthma Clinic, it's a statement that doesn't catch me off gaurd...especially this time of year when the pollen is so bad and the weather is so unpredictable. Our poor asthmatic patients have it pretty rough this time of year. I was tending to a sweet ederly man yesterday morning - a man who truly should have probably been at the hospital instead of our office because he was struggling so. It was one of those situations where I could literally feel myself start to have a harder time breathing just from watching him try so hard to get a good deep breath of air. As I was preparing his second breathing treatment with the hopes of seeing some reversibility, the Lord spoke to me. You see, I often have a hard time remembering what it was like to not have Christ in my life. I accepted him at the age of 7, so He's been hanging out in my heart for quite some time. I find myself at times asking the Lord to remind me of what my life was like before I knew Him...even that He would just allow me to imagine what my life might feel like now, were I to not know Him. I ask Him to show me these things so that I can keep ever before me the urgency of sharing Him with others. He did just that yesterday. I imagine that people without Jesus in their lives surely at times feel like they just "can't breathe". They don't have a Sustainer, a refuge, no One to take all the "gunk" out of their lives so that they can live in freedom and breathe easy, knowing that they have a Savior. Instead, they live in defeat and with a feeling that they'll never quite be able to "get to where they need to be." Does that make sense? I was reminded of this song yesterday by Mercy Me. It's called "Coming Up to Breathe".

"I'm in way too deep. I've forgotten how to swim. I can't tell which way is up or down. Save me before I drown down here. I just need some air. I'm coming up to breathe. Oh, I'm coming up to breathe. I've held my breath for all my life. But I am breaking free tonight. And I'm coming up to breathe. I just need to break these chains. I just need to leave this place. Before now this was all I knew. But with just one glimpse of You I see You're the air I need. I've done everything I can to get myself up on dry land. Lord, here I am again. Reaching for Your hand."

At times, even having Christ in my life, I can still feel this way. That the world just drains me and I need to get out from underneath it. But I've realized that I can't get out from underneath it on my own, but only with His power. Not only do I desire to help people physically breathe better, but I want to help those whose hearts are falling apart all because they haven't realized that He is the air they need.

"Thank you, Jesus, for sending that sweet man my way yesterday so that You could remind me that people need You because You truly are our Sustainer and our Life Giver. Help me show people that "can't breathe", how to."