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” (2nd
Corinthians 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
