I will never forget seeing Crystal’s body at the bottom of the swimming pool. She was one of the many kids attending the children’s portion of the Iowa Christian Convention, which I was helping out with. One of my jobs that day was to watch the kids as they swam in the pool. There were a lot of kids swimming, but between myself and another adult, I felt like we had the situation under control.
Then in a kind of surreal moment one of the kids said that there was someone at the bottom of the swimming pool. I immediately thought that the youngster was joking, but upon further inspection, at the deepest part of the pool right over the drain, was a little body. As I dove into the water, I feared that it was too late. I had no idea how long Crystal had been down there, had it been seconds or minutes? I pulled her limp body to the surface and with the help of others was able to get her onto the deck. Immediately prayers were prayed and CPR was performed. Crystal’s body had been deprived of oxygen long enough that her lips had turned purple…I was extremely worried. But then she began to cough and out came water and in flowed air…air filled with oxygen. So after minutes of being deprived of life giving oxygen Crystal breathed in all she could—in deep long breathes. That was so good to see.
When things calmed down, we tried to figure out how this could have happened. What did we do wrong to allow this little girl to be put in such a life threatening situation. As it turned out, Crystal had no idea how to swim. In fact she had hardly ever been around water for most of her 11 years on earth. When she saw all the other kids swimming and having a good time she jumped right in…she wanted to have fun too. But she didn’t know how to swim.
We all know that our bodies cannot survive without oxygen, but what about your spirits? How does your spirit “breathe”? Most of us dive right into the busyness of life everyday. We plunge head long into our to-do-lists without even thinking. To make matters worse now that the holiday season is upon us the busyness is going to go up a notch or three: shopping, parties, concerts, shopping, decorating, and shopping. There is so much to do and so little time. So with all this activity going on how does your spirit “breathe”?
You do know that you are spirit right? You are part physical and part spiritual. We all know how to take care of our physical bodies, but what about our spiritual bodies. Maybe what your spirit needs this holiday season is to come up from the depths of all your busyness and breathe…breathe in God. Over the next few weeks make it a priority to stop what you are doing and be still. Talk to God, read his word, or just admire his handiwork. Take time to breathe…your spirit is desperate for it.
"Be still, and know that I am God!” ~ Psalm 46:10
4 comments:
Last Sunday morning we watched the Nooma episode called (I think) "Breathe." It's a really good one. Probably one of the hardest for us to get our minds around.
Even harder to STOP trying to get our minds around and just DO.
Yeah, that "Breathe" Nooma is good. It always amazes me how we just miss it most days.
Have you seen "Dust"? That is my favorite.
I don't think so, but we're still doing nooma during sunday school, so I'm sure it will come up.
wow, moving. My stomach ached at the thought of that kid/pool incident. We filled in our pool last summer. The yard means more to us and the kids like to go swimming at the lake nearby.
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