We are dust and breath…

We are dust
and breath.
We are bones
and Spirit.
Formed from the ground,
and filled with the wind of God.

But sometimes our dusty feet
and tired bones
can’t take even one more step.

When hope feels dry,
and the days feel hollow,
when we’re just going through the motions -
it’s not failure.
It’s a sign that we’re out of breath.

Maybe we’ve been pushing too hard,
too fast,
for too long.
Or maybe we’ve been holding our breath.
(When lungs are filled with fear,
there isn’t much room for the Spirit.)

But the same breath
that hovered over the deep before time began,
that filled dry bones in a forgotten valley,
that blew through a locked room in Jerusalem,
is still flowing now.

Not just in churches and holy places.
But in laundry rooms and along backroads,
around kitchen tables
and across nursing home hallways.
In hospital waiting rooms
and beneath blankets of grief.

The wind of God blows where it will.
But more often than not,
it shows up in the places we’d rather avoid -
in the wreckage,
in the rubble,
in the rawness of heartbreak and loss.

We don’t have to earn it.
Things don’t have to be perfect.
But we do have to release the fear,
and inhale.

So, breathe deep now.
Even when you are tired in your bones…
Let the breath reach all your dry and brittle places.
Feel your bones begin to rattle with life again.
Hear the wild winds of love calling your name.

And then, love wide.
Rise on the winds of freedom.
Move with grace.
And reach out to pull others into the dance.