The Breath of Life

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a really good appreciation for the breath of life. Did you ever think about the fact that if God wanted to, He could withhold your breath? A few days ago, I thanked the Lord specifically for every breath He gives me. I sure didn't know what was ahead of me.

For the past several days, I've been having trouble with my breathing. I'm an asthmatic anyway, but this was a little different. My lungs weren't clogged or filled; they were squeezed. I couldn't do more than take shallow breaths. It was very strange - not to mention uncomfortable and annoying.

Okay. Pause. Let's have a small anatomy lesson. I'm fascinated by the human body God has designed, and love to study it. Blood and guts - no thank you - but looking at a body that functions well? That's different.

Last year I developed an interest in the spine. Because I go to a Chiropractor, I've had ample opportunities to ask questions and get answers. I've learned that the spine controls so much more than just movement. It houses the spinal cord - which I've learned controls much more than the sense of touch.

I used to think of the sense of touch when I thought of nerves. I sure had a small picture! Yes, it's nerves that tells me "ow! that's hot!" but they have a much bigger job. In fact, we "feel" less than 9% of our nerves. The rest of them do things we don't even know about, and have no way of feeling.

The nerves send messages to all the organs in my body. For example, if the nerve signals to my stomach got messed up, I wouldn't feel pain, but I could have digestion problems. If I treated my digestive problems with medication, I might fix the symptoms, but my nerve signals would still be incorrect, and I would just be setting myself up for future problems that are more serious.

I have the coolest chart that I got from the Chiropractic office; it's a larger-than-life drawing of the human spine, and shows which vertebra houses which nerve in the spinal chord. Each vertebra has two nerves coming out from it, and each nerve leads somewhere different. I can look at the chart to find out where my brain nerves are, where my stomach nerves are, where the nerves that control my emotions are....etc.

Ahem. End of anatomy lesson.

When I was adjusted yesterday, I found out that the area of my spine that controls my lung nerves was extremely twisted and curved. Yikes. The chiropractor said he'd never seen my spine so curved. I don't know what I did to mess my back up recently, but it sure has had its affects. It's possible that my spine and rib cage could even be pushing against my lungs. It sure feels like it.

Well, after I was adjusted, I didn't feel any difference. But at prayer time last night, my family prayed for me, and I thought I could feel a little improvement before I went to sleep.

It is hard to describe what it is like to have trouble breathing. There's a certain panic button that nothing else can push. After all, breathing is rather necessary! If you've never done without, you can't quite understand how precious it is.

I was so tired of concentrating on every breath I took. I kept wondering how many times my spine would need to be adjusted before the problem would be totally corrected. I prayed that God would give me the grace to be patient and calm and not get snappy and mean to those around me - which I'm tempted to do when I don't feel well.

But I didn't really pray for complete healing. After all, let's be practical! I knew what the problem was, and I knew what needed to be done to fix it. It would take awhile to fix.

That didn't bother my family. They prayed for healing anyway.

This morning I woke up able to breathe! Granted, my lungs feel bruised, and my spine is sore, but I can breathe! Whew!

Do something for me. Take a slow, deep, precious, delicious, invigorating breath, and tell God "Thank YOU!"