I have become more and more of a morning person. I never thought that it would happen but now it seems as if I can just jump out of bed and get right to work. For the longest time I would awaken only to struggle and struggle. You’d have to pry my eyelids open with toothpicks some mornings! Some mornings I just couldn’t stay awake.
Have you ever felt like that in your spiritual journey? Like you were awake but sleeping with your eyes open? Have you ever been sitting in church and just have no idea what’s even going on? Or what about reading the bible and you are so lost that you have no idea what you just read?
I’m reminded of the opening chapters of the bible. It’s the story of creation. God formed all of the things in creation by just a word or two. But when it came to Adam (the first man) he took his time. He knelt down and piled the dirt up. He moulded it and even squished it in his fingers. But nothing happened! It just laid there. No life. It was worse than asleep. It was lifeless. It was dead!
Then he did something strange but miraculous – he breathed into it. You see it wasn’t until the breath had entered that lifeless clump of clay that it came alive! It immediately awakened. Adam had purpose, being, life in him! And all because of the breath of God in him.
Then again in the new testament it happens again! Not with a new creation but with the followers of Jesus that we call disciples. They were gathered in a room, afraid that the death Jesus just endured was about to happen to them as well. They were afraid that the population of Jerusalem would soon turn on them the way they turned on Jesus. Then Jesus appeared to them in the room. Doors locked, windows closed – there here is! Right in the middle of the room! Then after a brief interchange between them, Jesus breathes on them. Odd huh! Or is it? Adam remained without life until God breathed into him. The disciples were lifeless in the room until Jesus breathed on them.
And the same is true of you and me today. We’ve been given a task, a message, a calling. And sometimes we just sit there lifeless. We need someone to put some life back on these dry bones. And that someone is the Holy Spirit of God. God’s Spirit is his breath. At our baptisms, God breathed on us. He put his Spirit into our hearts, making us come alive! It’s time to awaken! Awake my soul! Come alive in the power of God’s Spirit!
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