Sucking Life Through a Straw

"I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." -John 10:10

I went running yesterday. For anyone that knows me, this is not a big deal. Not only is this not a surprise, it is expected. The surprising part would be that for the five days prior to that, I had not been running. Last Monday, I got very sick. Not “go to the hospital bad,” but “bronchial tubes so inflamed it is not fun to breath” bad.

Why bother bringing up such a mundane activity from my life? Because it may have been a bit premature for me to be back out on the road. I knew that before I started, but I had to get out. I am running a marathon in three weeks, and this is supposed to be the two weeks of my maximum training load, not the time to take almost a full week off of running altogether.

Back at it, I felt strong, especially for not running for a while. As the run went on it got harder to breathe because my inflamed air passages could not take in enough air to keep going at the pace I wanted. I had to slow down to finish, and did so without any problems. It felt like trying to run while breathing through a drinking straw.

It occurred to me that is the way that I live my life as well. God has created this marvelous life for me to experience with him. He has so many ways that he wants me to get to know him and experience him, but I limit myself to just a tiny stream of access to him. It is like he has all this air with which he wants me to fill my lungs and I choose to keep sucking through this tiny tube.

The thing that bothers me is that I don't even realize that I am living a drinking straw existence. I think that I am getting all there is to get out of my life. In some ways, that is true. Based on all that I am capable of doing, I am getting all that there is to get out of my life. I am sucking life through that straw at maximum psi.

We don't need God to help us live our lives and our experience with him better than we are. We need him to remove our drinking straw limitations and open our lungs to all he wants to give us. We are clueless what our lives could be because we are clinging to the control over what we have. We are obsessed with the idea that God is going to take something away from us, when all God ever does is give us more. He does not take control, options, fun, money, and time. He gives life development, enduring happiness, unexpected resources, and freedom.

The sad and wonderful thing is, until you have been there you will not understand what I mean. Until you trade experiencing a life in which there is never enough air at the end of the effort for whatever God has, you can't understand me. I wish you could, but you can't; you are still sucking life through a straw. Once you trust God to take control of your straw, then he will trade it out for amazing, complete lungfuls of life. Those of you who have been there, you know exactly what I mean.

Are you ready to breathe?