Eighteen years in youth ministry leadership has convinced me that worship is a strategic and necessary part of reaching and discipling the next...
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Coming Up To Breathe
Writer: MercyMe
Category: Modern Worship
- Coming Up To Breathe (pdf)
I remember going swimming with my brother when I was a kid. We would always get into a major wrestling match in the water to see which one could take the other under. Being five years younger, I was always the one forced to see how long I could hold my breath underwater because he was so much stronger than me. Sometimes we would get carried away and my brother would hold me underwater a little too long, and I would start to panic.
I’ll never forget that feeling of needing air, desperately reaching out for something to pull myself up with. I may have only been under for a few seconds, but when I surfaced, I gasped for air like it was the first time I had ever breathed. Looking back, all I can say is, nothing has changed.
Even to this day, I still struggle with keeping my head above water. The circumstances may be a little different, but the urgency to breathe is very much the same.
These days the things that hold us down look different than my big brother in a swimming pool. For most of us, we carry the weight of wanting to live up to other people’s expectations, and this can be a hard burden to bear. Sometimes we succeed and other times we fail, but the weight of expectations can hold any of us down and overwhelm us. This is just as true for those of us who make music.
The idea that God can come into our personal situations and free us from worry, sin, and fear is amazing. The idea that there is Someone who is always with us, in our corner, because He loves us is something that almost seems fairytale. The tremendous thing is that this Person not only exists but died to set us free from all of our insecurities.
We encourage you to invest yourself in these ideals, and walk with the Creator of the Universe who is waiting with open arms to rescue you if you allow Him to. So yes, sometimes the world looks rough and wildly out of control, but we are here to let people know that there IS Someone in control, who is waiting to bring us back up to the surface of our everyday shortcomings to breathe again.
He is Jesus.
