Animated Functions

How many of us move from one event to another, one conversation to the next, one text message to email, all without stopping to take a breath? To pause?

Our drive for efficiency does not sit well with schedules that are finite. We are in a continual race to get things done, keep up, and keep going. The treadmill never seems to slow down let alone stop.

This pace of living gives the illusion of life but is really nothing more than going through life as if we were unconscious; one thing to the next, without thought, without reflection, without pause. In this practice we become a true “busy-body”; an automated, animated, function.

This is not life. Yet we keep going, and our pace keeps us numb; numb from problem solving, creative thinking, and deep human interaction. In this space we find ourselves everywhere and nowhere…scattered.

Maybe it is time to stop.

Stop and remember that you were not created as a function, but enlivened by the breath of God.

Breathe.

Give focus to your inhale.

Give focus to your exhale.

Breath is the space in which awareness happens. Maybe the discovery is that the world is larger than your thoughts, or perhaps, smaller than you could hold. Your discovery could bring in to sharp focus the current moment, and how that moment will never be duplicated.

Amidst the pause and release, discovery of who we are, where we are, and what we are rises to the surface. In our breath we become conscious again. We begin to see our full self; our success and failures of the past, our practices and constructions of today, and our longings, desires, and fears for tomorrow.

When we breathe we steady ourselves. Our being is no longer thrown around and twisted up because of circumstance, but instead, we find ourselves anchored through the steadiness of God’s given breath. His life, his being, animating us, animating me, animating you. We no longer operate as functions; we live as children.

Today, before you read that email or send that tweet, breathe; be mindful of your true connection.

This afternoon, before you hurry in the house after you come home from work, breathe; be present for your wife and kids.

Tonight, before you tell you children to “quiet down" after dinner, breathe; be willing to engage in their play.

You are not a function. You are alive. Breathe.