I am captivated by the song “Exhale” by Plumb recently. She has intrigued me since I heard one of her songs for the first time called “Lord, I’m ready now”. This first song hit me hard as I was going through a large battle with insecurity. God began showing me that the thought of “I’ve always been like that” or “I’ve always been shy” is just a lie and an excuse. I would make excuses for not going or wanting to go to an event with larger numbers of people. But God began asking me why. What He showed me were my very own crippling insecurities, and He gave me tools of how to overcome them. In “Lord I’m ready now”, Plumb talks about how she feels exposed and all her walls are down and how that’s beautiful. She talks about how she wants to make this life count by being who God has made her. The real her. It’s such a freeing song.
Now her newest song “Exhale” is so great. The first lyric is, “It’s ok to not be ok.” How many women need to hear that! It’s so freeing to just “be” in the Father’s arms whether it’s joyful, sorrowful, frustrated, upset, and not ok. He can handle our every emotion. Bring it to Him.
“No matter what you’ve done or who you are everyone is welcome in His arms”. I feel like I screw up every day. I let my emotions get the best of me. I say things that I shouldn’t. I can’t control my mouth. But I am so thankful that there is nothing I can do or say that will separate me from my Father’s arms. And praise God that He shows me the error of my ways and loves me enough to show me how to be more like Him.
“Oh God we breathe in your grace, we breathe in your grace and exhale. We do not exist for us but to share your grace and love…and exhale.” Isn’t that just it! Isn’t that the purpose of life in a nutshell! I feel like I’m really just starting to grasp my mind around the immense beauty and power of God’s grace. I grew up always knowing the salvation story and I am so thankful for that. But I think always knowing has made the concept of grace too familiar. It’s like I got too used to hearing about it. And the concept of “breathing it in” is so wonderful! How God freely offers it to us every day and we get to choose to breathe in it’s freshness and beauty or ignore it because it’s always been there. I wish I could say that I daily breathe it in, but I know I don’t. I can easily choose to follow my selfish desires and pity parties and miss the power and vastness of the daily Grace God has given me. To breathe in God’s grace, be completely filled by God, not by myself or this world, and exhale. To exhale his grace uniquely through my body, my personality into the world because God loves people and God loves me…..I LOVE this!
So what are you exhaling? Does your breath reek with cynicism, rude comments, anger, frustrations, or selfishness? Or does it exude encouragement, truthfulness, love, courage, and fierce bravery in Christ? Are we the “aroma that brings death” or the “aroma that brings life” (2ndCorinthians 2:16)? Or are you barely breathing at all: are you too overwhelmed with the stresses of life to even think about it or are the distractions of a first world country clouding your heart and minds from what truly is important in life?
“Just let go let His love wrap around you
And hold you close
Get lost in the surrender
Breathe it in until your heart breaks
Then exhale”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOgUjSW4agg