… and Josh Sholander makes my head explode.

So last night I (and several friends) watched the Nooma video entitled “Breathe.”  If you don’t know what Nooma is, do yourself a favor and find out.  Rob Bell is the emcee of Nooma so to speak.  If you don’t know who he is, do likewise.  Anyway, in this video Rob Bell explains that in the account of Moses at the Burning Bush, when God reveals His name to Moses, we interpret the word as LORD - capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.  In Hebrew (the original language), it would be YVHV - Caps Lock in place.  Its not a word as much as it is sounds: Y-V-H-V.   In Hebrew these letters would sound like, “Yod - Heh - Vav - Heh.”  Literally, these vowel-like Hebrew characters put together would be the sound of breathing.  I.E. - God’s name is the sound of breathing.  Literally, when you breathe, you say God’s name.  Check out the video to get the whole story.

Josh Sholander is sitting next to me, and he quotes the Psalm, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”  I always took this passage to say, “If you are breathing you SHOULD praise God.”  Its as if it is an option.  But with this understanding of God’s name, it is more accurate to say, “If you are breathing you ARE praising God.”  It is not optional.  Your life exists only for His glory!  To live any other way will only leave you disappointed.  Then Josh starts talking about that commandment.  You know the one - “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.”  Insert new breath revelation and what do you get?  “Do not take a breath in vain.”  Needless to say, Josh is a deep guy whose conversations are sure to push you deeper in your intimacy with Christ. 

So now I have this life-shaking enlightenment: Every breath we take is meant to be an effort to give glory to God, to reflect His character, to reveal His grace, to make His name known.  But how many of us live that way?  How often to I live that way?

A bad habit of mine is to “huff.”  By this I mean, that when I get frustrated or overwhelmed or angry I let out this great sigh from my mouth with a little bit of a growl underneath it.  My wife calls it “the huff,” and it is horribly annoying to her.  Understandably so.  That would be an example of taking a breath in vain.  I have not used my life, my moment, my breathing, my base level of existence to reflect God.  A much more appropriate response would be to take a slow and deep breath; to evaluate the measure and full implication of the situation; to compare my temporary discomfort with God’s grand scheme for the universe; and ultimately to yield myself to His character.  When I “huff,” I have done just the opposite, and I may have missed a “burning bush” opportunity. 

You can’t stop breathing.  You’ll die.  But you can choose how you breathe.  I hope that today you will not breathe in vain.  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord… and with each breath, may you do just that.