Breath of Life — Aug 11, 2024 — Bayers Road Baptist Church
Breath of Life
Kenton Sefcik
Aug 11, 2024 — Bayers Road Baptist Church
Genesis 2:5-7
5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
I have been practicing acupuncture and Chinese medicine for 17 years. From the outside looking in, it might look like that I put needles into people, that I light cotton balls on fire and stick them inside glass jars to create suction, and that I ask patients to consume bitter tasting herbs. However, the greatest tool I have is not a needle, or a cup, or herbs; it’s observation. I observe the way a patient walks, their posture, and, when a patient lies down on the massage table, I observe their breath. I am confident in saying that the breath is one of the largest determinants of health and wellbeing. It determines how well someone sleeps, how they conserve energy, and how well someone copes with stress.
Have you ever noticed how you breathe? Do you breathe through your nose or your mouth? Do you breathe shallow or deep? Is it rushed or relaxed? And do you ignore your breath or check in with it multiple times during the day? Whenever I teach a Qigong or Tai Chi class, I ask my participants to take a big breath in, and, usually, they don’t get very much. This is because they are breathing only at the very top of their lungs, not moving very much air. Then I ask them to slowly exhale all their air, emptying their lungs, followed by a big breath in. Then they get it: the key to a good inhale is a good exhale. When we get a complete exhale, we are allowing our diaphragm to move through its entire range of motion, followed by a full inhale, which massages our internal organs. When a horse walks, their bellies swing side to side — their walking helps digest their food. Our breathing helps digest ours. If you ever find yourself with an upset stomach, gas, or constipation, try gently starting a cycle of deep breathing to relieve your concerns.
James Nestor is the author of the book Breath. I highly recommend this book, but today I’m going to save you 35 bucks. James discovered that six-second inhales, followed by six-second exhales, moves 5½L of air in and out of the lungs, and activates the vagus nerve. Now, this isn’t the “whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas nerve.” The vagus (V A G U S) nerve is known for a relaxed and calm state that is brought on by the parasympathetic nervous system. This is also known as rest and digest. The opposite of rest and digest is fight or flight, and this is brought on by the sympathetic nervous system. Guess what contributes to a fight or flight state? Breathing rapidly and shallowly. You can picture it right now: how you would feel if you only took in short bursts of air rapidly. I get stressed out just thinking about it. Essentially, deep breathing improves the quality of our lives. But there’s another key that James discovered: it has to be through the nose. James went so far as to plug his nose for 10 days and developed apnea, snoring, and high blood pressure. Therefore, short, rapid breathing through the mouth is bad, and elongated, slow breathing in and out of the nose is good.
Returning to my day-to-day work as an acupuncturist, I am interested in how the theory of Chinese medicine coincides not only with James’ scientific research, but also with the Word of God. Traditional East Asian Medicine tells us that we have a soul, but it is divided into two parts - a Yang part and a Yin part. The Yang part is called ethereal, which was present before we were born, and will merge with the stardust when we die. This is housed in the Liver. This soul part is responsible for helping us plan a vision for our life. The sense organ associated with the Liver are the eyes. The Yin and corporeal part came to be when we were born and took our first breath. It is housed in the Lungs and it allows us to animate our bodies. The sense organ association is the nose. When we die, this corporeal part leaves out the anus, returns to the earth, and we are no longer able to move our bodies because of this.
In Genesis 2:5-7, we’ve just recounted the creation of the heavens and the earth, and we’ve come to the point where God is going to make the first human. Assembled from the dust of the ground, God then breathes his life-giving spirit into us. Now, when God breathed his breath of life into the first human, it wasn’t into the mouth, it wasn’t into the ears or the belly button — it was into the nose! So here we have an ancient medicine that was created by observing nature and our relationship therein, a scientific experiment to improve our health, and scripture all pointing to the intelligence of God. The breath of God was given through the nose and that turned his creation from molds of clay to real, animated, living beings. I’m curious as to whether we can take this further.
I think we could all agree that one of the modern-day challenges is figuring out how we can continue to turn our hearts and minds back to God on a day to day basis. Everything is pulling at us: our families, our vocation, our phones where we catch ourselves scrolling to no end. Humans are good with getting themselves stuck in a pattern. Miss one Sunday morning? Maybe more? Pretty soon, we’ve weaved a story in our minds that we can’t possibly show our face in church now. People will wonder where we’ve been. People will judge. And, of course, anyone who has found the bravery to return knows this isn’t the truth — but after a couple of repeated patterns, our minds stuck in a rut.
Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV) writes: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Paul encourages us to pray unceasingly. In the orthodox Christian tradition they have come up with a solution for this. It’s called the Jesus prayer. This prayer can be muttered under one’s breath, sang or even chanted:
Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
To pray unceasingly, we can begin layering our day with returning our gaze back to God. Our Anglican friends encourage daily office — taking time to pray three times a day. Jesus tells us to think of Him when we break bread and drink wine, so we can do this with every meal. And we can also borrow the Jesus prayer from our Orthodox friends. However, what if we had something even closer to us — something we carried with us wherever we went, something that was given to us at the beginning of mankind, and at the beginning of our own lives; and something to get us unstuck from our mental ruts by turning our hearts and minds back to God in every moment of every day?
Whenever I have sought counsel from someone smarter, wiser, and farther along the spiritual path than I, I have been reminded to turn my eyes back to God. I offer that every breath is a gift from God, and an opportunity to remember our creator. Can you feel it? Can you feel yourself inhaling that God-given breath? By giving each breath a little of our attention, we bring ourselves into the present moment — the present moment of God. Each breath can be filled with thanks because we are not guaranteed the next one. We must be grateful for the current breath we are breathing. Giving such thanks may even cause us to slow it down — why rush such a gift from God?
Now, I must warn you of something. If you begin to bring the presence of God into each breath, you might find yourself feeling a little uncomfortable. I think of Christ as the great softener: come, abide in me, I will give you rest. So when we begin this softening, you might find yourself in a little bit of a tug-of-war. If we get into a car accident, break a bone, or go through a stressful or traumatic event, we tighten up: we tighten up our muscles, we tighten up our stomach, and we tighten up our tear ducts. This tightening was for good reason — to protect us. However, after the bone has healed, those tight muscles don’t need to hold on for dear life anymore (but they do). And this new tightness has become a protective shell that we’re living out of. So when you begin to breathe, and begin to soften, you might feel a little bit of an argument happening in your muscles, or maybe a little bit of a flutter in your heart, or maybe a bunch of tears will fall. This is where the trust piece comes in. We trust that each God-given breath is healing — that with each layer of softening we get closer to God and closer to our original selves.
So, maybe you’ve got some healing to do, or maybe you find yourself in a stressful meeting at work, or maybe you’re just peeling the potatoes. Either way, I invite you to breathe: slowly, in through your nose, and out through your nose, massaging your organs with your diaphragm, activating your vagus nerve putting you in a rest and digest state, and, most importantly, using the breath as a reminder of the presence of God, and allowing it to soften you through his son, Jesus Christ.
Let us pray:
Lord, we give thanks for your breath that brought us into this world, and for the one we are breathing now. With each breath, we will keep you near to our chest — in both our lungs and hearts. We pray that each breath reminds us to turn our gaze back to you, to allow you to soften us, and to trust you in that process. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.