Deep Calls Out to Deep

Has anyone ever told you when you’re in a full-on panic, hey, take a breath? Just breathe.  It almost sounds impossible at the time. I am not prone to panic attacks, but I have had them. Racing thoughts, heart palpitations, sheer panic (hence the name)…I do not give them a five-star rating.

Once I had one and my friend Amy blessedly called me during it.  I had texted her earlier.  When she realized what was happening, she said, “Okay, breathe with me.  We’re going to breathe normally but we’re going to exhale a little longer than we inhale.  This will signalyour body that we’re slowing things down.  Also, if you haven’t yet, kick off your shoes and feel the carpet beneath your bare feet.  Keep breathing.”

What she did was remarkable. She didn’t simply tell me to breathe. In that moment, my body was so overrun with everything else, it had forgotten how to breathe normally. So instead of saying breathe, she did it with me. She figuratively walked through with me. 

She talked to me until it was over.  Her voice is perfect for calming.  It’s one of her many God-given gifts. Just being reminded how to breathe was exactly what I needed.  Then I learned something later and it is insanely cool!!!  Ready?

Have you ever heard God referred to as Yahweh? Yahweh is translated from the burning bush incident with Moses in Exodus when God said, I am who I am, I will be what I will be… Have you ever seen the word written YHWH?  It’s a tricky translation and they had to add vowels because the literal translation, the literal covenant name of God is unpronounceable. But here’s the cool part, the literal covenant name of God is the sound of breathing.

A baby prays with its first breath.  And a dying person prays with their last.  And an atheist, bless their heart prays when they breathe. Oops. 

And that day when my anxiety was off the chain and Amy helped me breathe, she helped me pray. The best friends lead us back to our Creator.

God breathed our life into us, and He created a prayer inside us with every breath so our heart’s deepest cry can call out to Him.  Deep calls out to deep.  I told you it was cool.

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Genesis 2:7