My sister flew in for a visit early this summer. Our lunch conversation caught us up on all the latest which culminated in the shared experience that our lives are not what we thought they would be at this point. I often ask this question when speaking to groups – “How many of you are doing what you thought you’d be doing at this point in your life?” And each time I ask I see only one or two hands raise. Life happens. But not as we expected.
While our lives are different, my sibling and I currently share the same frustration of inactivity. Oh, we are busy with stuff. It’s just not the stuff we wanted to be busy with, thought we would be busy with, and feel guilty that we are not busy with. We’ve spent our passions going through life full-throttle, and now we’re not.
As we commiserated the discomfort of being still, she shared with me a simple observation she made during the flight attendant’s safety speech. Here’s a portion of a standard speech:
“Place the mask over both your mouth and nose and secure with the elastic band as your Flight Attendant is demonstrating. Tighten by pulling on the ends of the elastic bands. Even though oxygen is flowing, the plastic bag may not inflate.”
Neither of us see the plans and dreams we had for our lives inflating at this point. And just like nervous flight passengers, there is a sense of panic that arises when we can’t see the bag inflate! But the assurance is that we are still getting oxygen. And that’s what’s important. God is still God and His timing is perfect. He has not left us without exactly what we need during this season, His breath in our lungs.
As I read through the safety speech to find the above I noticed the two sentences just before:
“Reach up and pull the mask to your face. This action will start the flow of oxygen.”
Reach up. This starts the flow of oxygen. Hmmm.
I can’t tell you how many times this summer I’ve said to myself “I’m still getting oxygen.” It was a timely word for me, and maybe for you as well.
Reach up and just breathe.
I’ve been pondering this for weeks. As I write today and prepare to post, my friend is quite literally fighting to breathe. It’s a long story that perhaps one day I will tell, but today I will simply ask you to pray for the miracle of oxygen saturation in her lungs. She is precious to me and much more so to God. She needs to know the miracle of getting enough oxygen. Join me as I sing this praise to God and over her.
“Still getting oxygen” was written by Kay Stinnett and first appeared on http://www.ourpassionatepurpose.com
Safety speech excerpts taken from http://www.airlineannouncement.com/
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