I have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
I am so excited to share with you all that I just finished my first book! It is called “This Side Of Breathing.”
It’s all about the connection between Breath and Spirit – how our very souls were created to receive God as naturally as our bodies receive breath. This means there is nothing we can face that God cannot bring us through.
We can breathe through it . . . whatever it may be. What a Deep Life we will come to live when we finally discover this side of breathing . . .
(THIS SIDE OF BREATHING: Finding Oxygen For Your Soul)
You can purchase your copy here. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
In the meantime, would you like to read the introduction to the book?
Alright, but just this once . . .
THIS SIDE OF BREATHING
AN INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever felt out of breath – as if you have been trying everything you can think of to breathe – and yet you are still stuck, breathless?
Maybe you’ve been running hard and you’re out of breath because the sheer amount of energy you have been pouring out has cost you almost everything.
Or you’ve been holding your breath, waiting for the worst to come, or pass . . . afraid to open your lungs to receive what is waiting for you.
Perhaps you’ve been sick. You’ve tried everything to clear a path for the oxygen you are craving, but still – the difficulty remains.
It could be the shock. You’ve had the wind knocked out of you. Something you did not expect and could not have prepared for has collided with your life, and now you find yourself trying – and failing – to breathe.
The first time I remember getting the wind knocked out of me I was 8 years old, and I wanted desperately to be a gymnast. My friends and I would play “Olympics” and do tricks together during recess at the private school I attended in Texas. In our school uniforms, we would perform our tumbling feats and even embark on a few group routines.
During one such afternoon, I was chosen to be the top of a pyramid. One of the girls was less-than-steady, and she just so happened to be positioned on the bottom of the pyramid. Physics would say this was going to turn out bad for me. Only seconds after I climbed to my place, down I dropped from the height of 3 elementary-aged girls standing on top of one another – directly onto my face.
It felt like minutes before I could breathe again – minutes which felt like eternity.
Something that had always been natural, so automatic as breathing had become a seemingly impossible task in that moment.
My chest heaved and my body ached. I was both desperate and aware of my desperation. It frightened me.
Breathlessness is terrifying. This is true in our physical lives, and it’s true in our spirits.
Just like we experience moments of exhaustion and sickness and shock in our physical life, our spirits face problems, emotions, and circumstances we can’t seem to get around, let alone through.
I assume you are holding this book because you or someone you love has had the breath knocked out of their spirit. You know you are not well, or the pace at which you are living your life is exhausting. You just want to breathe. We all just want to breathe.
It is in those moments, like our bodies strain for breath, that our spirits strain for God.
“Where are you in this?”
“Why can’t I hear you?”
“Where did you go?”
“Where can I find you?”
We think, “If only I could pray the right prayer or make the right choice, I would be able to find God. I would be able to experience Him. I would be able to get through this.”
What if God isn’t something to be chased or conjured or found, but someone to be received?
What if it’s just like receiving breath?
When God spoke us into existence, He didn’t stop at words – the God of Creation breathed into dust and life was formed. In that moment, man was filled with the very Spirit of God. Life was given as a gift, through breath.
Every baby has a first breath. It’s a pivotal moment when a child begins to breathe.
Our spiritual lives are no different. When a person learns to breathe in the Spirit of God, it changes everything.
Jesus said in John 3:5-6 (NLT), “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.”
The Holy Spirit is a gift of life – a gift many of us complicate, but it is a gift we have already been given. The most natural thing our spirits can do is to breathe in the Spirit of God.
It is my hope that through the words on these pages you will learn how to receive the Holy Spirit, and through your learning, you will see there is nothing you could face that you cannot breathe through.
Together, we will learn to breathe in the Holy Spirit through:
Problems we cannot see a way around.
Emotions that scare us and keep us stuck.
Circumstances which seem to be hopeless.
What would it look like for a community of people to live truly full lives?
What if our kids were to grow up in homes full of peace and not fear?
What if we could learn to process our emotions instead of becoming slaves to them?
What if we believed that life was never meant to be lived in isolation?
Might we see with new eyes that anxiety and fear and hopelessness have no hope to stand against the power of the Holy Spirit in each of us?
Would we see that even death cannot take our breath away, when that breath belongs to the Spirit of God and is given as a gift?
Would we finally believe that nothing is too dead for our God to bring back to life?
That, my friends, is my deepest prayer and most fervent desire.
Through your openness to His voice and by His power, which raised Christ from the dead, may the Holy Spirit lead you into a fuller and deeper life than you could imagine for yourself on your most creative day.
I can’t wait for you to read the rest. I may post more snippets in the weeks to come, but know this: I am praying for you even now. Deeper and Fuller life – for you now and always. Let us always be found at the feet of Jesus as we learn to trust the power of the Holy Spirit in and through us.
P.S. Here is a link to a spotify playlist I listened to while writing the book:
byjenwaldron.com 