Every Breath You Take: A Thought

Drawing in a sharp gasp, I suddenly lose my grip.
The air around me begins to move, faster and faster, until there is a vibrating hum in my ear. My heart has quickly re-positioned itself in my throat, and my other internal organs fight to follow suit. I am free falling. With no control over my surroundings, my mind attempts to rationalize escape. Eventually, it issues a verdict: there is no hope. Completely subject to the whims of gravity, I am being harshly returned to my proper place on solid ground.
Whether I arrive there dead or alive is not important.

Although it is only a matter of seconds, it may as well be days. The constraining regulations of time have been abolished, and as the trees below become larger, their branches reach out to me, welcoming my fate with outstretched arms.
I have always heard people say that if you die in your dreams, you have actually died in real life. This is quite false. I have blown up on Mars and watched my limbs scatter through space, been run over by a fire truck, been chased by a clown into an elevator shaft, and been flung off the top of a roller-coaster. Each time this has happened, I have still managed to wake up with all of my body parts intact and my heart beating: a little bit faster than normal, maybe, but beating all the same. After a couple minutes, the gears of my sleepy brain begin to work again, and a feeling of total joy washes over me: I am ALIVE. Not “alive”, the small adjective found in a dictionary. ALIVE. All caps. There is blood flowing through my veins at this very moment. I am in my own bed, not dangling off the edge of a cliff. The air around me tastes much sweeter, and the dull glow of the clock radio next to me much friendlier. Why is it that so many people today do not know what it feels like to really be alive? We cannot wait for a nightmare to teach us how important each breath we take is.

I have grown up indoctrinated with the phrase, “Every day is a gift from God.” Upon hearing this, I automatically visualize the words coming sweetly from the lips of an 80-year old woman, with red lipstick on her false teeth, smelling strongly of body odor and bad perfume. I can’t help myself. It is just one of those cliché phrases that you have heard so often, you become indifferent to it. But when you step back and look at the words, really look at them, they begin to become something more.
We understand that there are twenty-four hours in a day. Twenty-four hours of existence on this earth that we, in and of ourselves, have no real control over. It is all God. It is all a gift that he, in his divine grace, is handing to us. So often, we are not proper stewards of our hours on earth. We waste them on ourselves: in the perusal and fulfillment of our selfish desires. Now it is time to stop and think. What would the world look like if every person who claimed to be a Christian devoted every moment of every day to the soul purpose of glorifying God and serving the least of these? The outcome would be revolutionary. We need to look beyond the mirror that sits in front of us and see the world behind it: a world that is in shambles and calling out for help. I recently heard the quote, “If we are the light of the world, than why is the world so dark?” As Christians, “little Christ’s” as the word literally means, we must strive to emulate Jesus in our daily lives. Our Lord did not spend his time on the earth earning money so he could purchase the latest Apple toy, spend a week tanning in Hawaii, or outfit himself in the latest trendy sweater. Not that these things are inherently wrong, but if the motive is for nothing but personal gain, we must be willing to step back and re-evaluate ourselves.

Jesus spent His time in the grime and dirt of society, serving the social outcasts and those in need: whether they be lepers, prostitutes, Samaritans, or tax collectors. Instead of following His example, we sit in the comforts of our home and watch orphans dying from aids in Africa, homeless men lining the streets, and people clinging to trees as a hurricane destroys everything all their earthly possessions. “What a pity,” we muse, eyebrows furrowed, while sipping our Starbucks. And then we drop a couple quarters in the plastic bucket that the man outside Safeway is holding. We tithe regularly, don’t we? And heck, we even sponsor a child in Africa for $10 a month. We are “good” Christians, willing to help the needy… until it becomes an inconvenience. I am in no way decreeing that every person drop what they are doing and join the Peace Core, or become missionaries to Tibet. No, all I ask is that each one of us reflect upon our lives and search our hearts in accordance with God’s will. We must be always willing to step out of our comfort zone when it comes to reaching the lost in the name of Christ.
When we give our lives to Christ, we recognize that each minute on this earth is not our own, but God’s. Therefore when we waste our time on things that do not glorify Him, we are in essence mocking our Creator. Living a life worthy of the calling of our faith, inside of God’s will: this is what it truly means to be alive