We have allowed life to take away our “room to breathe.” Devices. TV. Appointments. More devices. More TV. More appointments. And ALWAYS a list of to-do items on our ever-expanding to-do list.
All of that has left many of us with no room to breathe. No room to reflect on life and our purpose in it. No room for God.
You are no doubt thinking that what’s coming next from a “full-speed-ahead CEO” like me is that margin is all about striving for a life balance and taking time to smell the roses…right?
Wrong.
For me, living a committed life following Jesus is a matter of generating “breathing room” for an intimate relationship with God.
The more conventional Christian view of creating breathing space is to shift priorities to “accommodate” spiritual growth and maturity. Obviously, there is a HUGE difference in approaches.
WHY BREATHING ROOM?
As my success mounted as a CEO, the breathing room in my life kept shrinking ever smaller. Even though I had more success than I ever imagined, I couldn’t relax. People would tell me they were going to the zoo or to a parade and I would think they had gone mad. To say I was on edge would be a massive understatement.
My activity management approach to life demoted God to a minor and situational role. Any breathing room I created was for me, not for others, not for God. Just me. I felt like a barking dog chasing a car, although I would never have known what to do with it had I caught it. It seems foolish now when I look back. But that was my life in my early 30s and 40s.
TAKING GOD’S PATH
Something very significant happened on the day I decided to get on God’s path when it came to room to breathe in God’s wisdom and direction. Though it certainly didn’t show up immediately as a big bang vision from the heavens, I went through a complete life transformation. I have a stack of personal journals three feet high to prove it. In the middle of my dangerous tango with activity management, God had blessed me.
Over time, God created more and more breathing room in my life, but it wasn’t for relaxing. I knew God wanted me to use it to find my purpose in life and discern what he would have me do for the Kingdom with my gifts and experiences.
I do not believe that shifting priorities in life to accommodate spiritual maturity will ever work. The only way to know what to add or drop in order to create breathing room is to put everything through God’s filter every day. That was how God helped me cut back on what the world valued in order to have more time for what he valued.
IT’S NOT ABOUT PERFECTION
My life with God first does not have perfection anywhere in the picture, but I do have breathing room to listen for God’s direction. But I do not have these things so I can rest. The breathing room is to be ready to hear what God would have me feel, do, and be.
I’m glad I can breathe. Thank you, God.
