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The Bay Bridge that leads to Destin, Florida, is holy ground to me.

For miles before we get there, my blood pressure steadily drops and my spirit begins to unwind. The salt air, the breeze, the warmth of the sun, and the endless view of big sky feed me in deep and quiet ways. Sometimes I drive across the bridge in silent reverence for the beauty of the moment, and other times I crank up praise music and let my soul sing.

This is the place where God has met me for several years now. It feels unique and special, and I come here with great expectancy and openness. There’s something about nature that draws me into our Father’s heart. Such beauty, a harmony to the ferocity and strength of the steady waves, seems to be a window into eternity.

I run out of words on the shoreline. Sometimes I think God waits for me to get to the end of what I want to say so that I can hear Him. He rarely interrupts us. His love is patient.

It’s in that space that I encounter His heart for me. He is not rushing me. He is not pushing. He wraps me in the assurance that being in His presence is the very thing I was created to experience. Everything else is either a result of my experience with Him, or it is a distraction from it.

Our Father longs for us to exhale. Life often forces us to run, or makes us hold our breath, or forget to breathe. We fill the minutes and the moments with so much that we lose our awareness of Him and His mighty, faithful, overwhelming love for us – love not because of who we are or what we do, but because we are His.

We have the words “Holy Spirit” because there isn’t a solid English translation for the Hebrew word. In the original text, it reads “breath.” As our body is fueled by oxygen, so our spiritual body is fueled by the breath of God, His Spirit, at work in us. Our body does not strive to breathe. Oxygen is everywhere, and we are largely unaware of it. For some reason, however, we feel that we must somehow conjure God’s presence by our words or actions. He is there, in us, around us, sustaining us. We must merely be still and recognize it.

Maybe it’s time to find a quiet spot in His creation and take the time to breathe in Him, with no pressure to memorize a verse or say the right prayer or sing the right song. Simply sit and breathe, with your heart open to Him. Allow His breath, His Spirit, to minister to you.

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God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

– Psalm 46:1-3, 10-11 (NIV)

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Suzy Stjernstrom
South Central Field Director

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