Twelve breaths a minute
“Dude, Breathe” sticker on a lampost in Texas somewhere
So in Exodus 3 God visits a shepherd called Moses (I’m assuming we’ve all heard of him). God visits Moses and asks him to liberate God’s people from slavery in Egypt.
It’s fair to say Moses is pretty reluctant at first, questioning why the Pharoah would listen to him… lets pick the story up at Verse 11…
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.”
This name I am in the original Hebrew was written as four letters, specifically:
Y H W H
Over time we’ve added vowels to this to help us pronounce this as Yahweh, as a western culture we struggle with words without vowels…but scholars and Rabbis have noted that these four letters without the vowels represent breathing sounds – they are referred to as “aspirated consonants”…
what I mean is when you pronounce it without the vowels it actually sounds like breathing
YH – is the inhale and WH is the exhale
So every time we breathe, are we speaking the name of God?
A little earlier in Genesis 2, we read in the creation poem the following:
“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.”
Incidentally the word breath here, “ruach”, is also the same word for spirit.
So the idea of ‘breath’ goes to the heart of scripture and the beginning of creation. God breathes life into human kind as an act of not simply creation, but also of image…and the image They create speaks back God’s name with every breath it takes.
Twelve breaths a minute…
The Oxford dictionary defines breath of life as “a thing that someone needs or depends on”
The average human takes 12 breaths a minute,
If we are speaking the name of God… then that means every one of us has spoken the name of God about 8 and a half million times in the last year.
Me as a man in his early-ish 40’s has said the lords name over 300 million times…
When you are awake, asleep, doing the dishes, driving to work – we never stop breathing, calling back to our creator, responding with the same breath he gave to his creation.
And then In our sadness we breath heavy sighs that cry to the Lord
In our joy we laugh out loud, calling his name
In our fear we hold our breath, or breath rapidly, and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down
When we are about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage.
From a newborn’s first cry to when we breathe or last and our spirit leaves the earth we speak the name of God.
Two last thoughts…
Firstly – I’m sure we’ve all had times when we have struggled to speak out in prayer. I know I have. Sometimes it’s hard to find words to express the way we feel.
Well by simply sitting with God in silence, by breathing God’s name you are calling out to Them.
Secondly – I read recently about a survey that is run by the Edelman Institute that has been running for last 20 years or so. Link is here if you are interested: 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer | Edelman
In this survey they talk to about 30,000 people across about 30 countries worldwide, and they ask them about how they feel about people of differing views and beliefs – be it political views, faith views, views about social groups etc.
This year, their “Trust Barometer” showed the worst ever statistics – of all survey recipients:
Only 30% of people said they would help a person in need that had different point of view to them – I wonder if that’s the 30% of people who remember the parable of the good Samaritan.
Only 20% would be happy to live in the same neighbourhood as people of different faiths
And only 20% would be happy to have them as a co-worker.
When you consider that everyone you meet - no matter their political persuasions, religious beliefs, social group, colour, creed, gender or sexuality – every person is made in Gods image,
Every person is loved by God. Every person is breathing the same breath.
It’s no wonder that much of the teachings of Jesus’ focus on how we treat each other.
A prayer to close
God, thank you for breathing your life into all of us,
For your breath in our lungs,
For your spirit living in us and among us and around us
Help us to see your breath in those around us
To know that we are all created in your image
That no matter our disagreements we are all cherished and loved by you
Amen
