My husband and I are getting older every year, but don’t worry, we have a plan. And the plan is Jubilee\u2014Coalition for Christian Outreach’s catalytic event created to provide \u201ca vision of and for life\u201d for college students who are followers of Jesus. Our annual dose of youth culture\u2014in the form of a conference for college students\u2014keeps us from becoming completely inept and utterly uncool. Or at least that’s the plan.<\/p>\n
At the very least, we learn a handful of new worship songs every year. Though I love the gospel songs and hymns we sing on Sundays at our small Presby-Baptist church, I am inevitably struck by some new chorus at Jubilee, some new way of putting truth gone stale, some new lyrical prayer catching me off guard. This year we sang,<\/p>\n
It’s your breath in our lungs,<\/em><\/p>\n so we pour out our praise,<\/em><\/p>\n we pour out our praise.<\/em><\/p>\n It’s your breath in our lungs,<\/em><\/p>\n so we pour out our praise<\/em><\/p>\n to you only.<\/em><\/p>\n As I listened to the voices surrounding me, I saw one of the band members circle her arms to the music. It’s your breath in our lungs, <\/em>she lifted both hands up along her torso, reaching out above her head, so we pour out our praise, <\/em>she brought her arms forward, as if she was setting something down, we pour out our praise, <\/em>she reached her hips and began the circle again.<\/p>\n It’s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise to you only.<\/em> And my mind was turning over this thought: Even praise to God has its source in God.<\/p>\n The music ended and an enthusiastic professor bound to the stage. \u201cI want to talk about Creation with this frame,\u201d he said, \u201cEverything God creates is a gift. You are a gift. The person next to you is a gift. Every inch of this earth is a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n He asked us to consider what it means to approach other people as gifts. He described human work as unwrapping the gifts inherent in <\/em>the world so that they might be gifts to <\/em>the world. And as he spoke, it echoed again, It\u2019s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise.<\/em><\/p>\n God asks nothing of us that hasn\u2019t been given to us.<\/p>\n I thanked God for these reminders. And then I remembered one more thing, something I had learned when I was even younger than the students around me. I remembered learning to sing. \u201cBreathe!\u201d our choir director would command, \u201cIf you don’t breathe, how can you sing? Breathe!\u201d<\/p>\n It was so obvious, but so difficult, this remembering to breathe. I knew that I would be able to hold a note longer, keep my voice steady, and reach higher pitches if I just inhaled at regular intervals. I knew the air was available, abundant, and necessary. I knew, but I quickly became distracted by my own efforts. I would forget to breathe, straining my voice, and pushing out the notes with everything I had left.<\/p>\n