A note before this: this reflection is personal, and it's meant to be — this is the one slot in the week where first-person testimony belongs.
Today's finale is built on a song called "Living Miracle" by Megan Woods. There's an idea in it that wrecks me every time I hear it: there's a reason you're still breathing.
For most people, that's encouragement. For me, it's a fact I can put a date on.
May 13, 2021
On May 13, 2021, I stopped breathing. I died.
And Jesus sent me back. He said five words: "There's still so much for you to do."
I've told that story a lot. But this week, walking through OUT OF THE DUST, I heard something in it I'd never noticed before.
Not Because I'd Gotten It Right
God didn't send me back because I had finally gotten everything right. He didn't review my record and decide I'd earned another round. He sent me back because He wasn't finished.
That's Ephesians 2:10 — this week's memory verse — in one sentence. "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Prepared in advance. Before May 13. Before any of it.
Borrowed Breath
Here's what I live with now: every breath I've taken since that day is borrowed. I know that in a way I didn't before. And every one of those breaths is on purpose.
That's changed how I deal with shame. When that old voice shows up and tries to tell me who I am — what I've done, what I've failed at, what I'll never be — I don't argue with it the way I used to.
I just breathe.
Because the breath in my lungs is God's answer. Genesis 2:7 says He breathed into dust and it became a living being. He did it again for me on May 13. And He's doing it for you right now.
If You're Breathing
Whoever you are, whatever you've done, whatever name shame has been calling you — if you're breathing as you read this, He's not finished with you either.
Handmade. Known. Here on purpose.
— JDOT Pine
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