Photo Credit: Kuyler McComas via Compfight
I used to have asthma when I was younger. My asthma was really bad, and I have a nickel-sized dead patch of my lung to prove it. It’s hard to explain how delicious air can feel when you’re so deprived for so long. It’s hard for people who’ve never had that intense shortness of breath to truly understand and appreciate what it’s like to be able to drink in full breaths of air. God healed me many years ago, and everyday I’m alive and breathing normally all I can do is be thankful…
A few days ago I was with a young girl struggling with asthma. I told her that I used to have asthma and told her that what really helped me was trying to force my lungs to take in the air. I would pretend like I was blowing a really big balloon and would have to force my inflamed airways to take in as much air as I could. I let her know that I understood how hard it was but that I could see she was working really hard, and that she was doing a very good job…
Perhaps it was because I had many people encouraging me when I had asthma that I would get over it eventually, or perhaps it was because my parents always encouraged me telling me that they could see how hard it was for me and that they were proud of me for working so hard…perhaps that’s why it wasn’t as hard as it could have been…
In life there are times when it seems as if we’re gasping and can’t get enough air.
In life there are times when it seems as if we’re gasping for air. The times when the guy you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with ends up marrying someone else, or your favorite uncle in the world, the one that always told you how amazingly beautiful and brilliant you were, is killed by a drunk driver, or the job you moved around the world for tells you they no longer need you, or your parents that were your role models all your life tell you they’re getting a divorce…
These are the times when although you feel like you’ll never breathe again, you just have to force your lungs to breathe. These are when you find tears on your pillow and realize that you cried all night long…these are the times you wonder if anyone cares…
Breath dear, just breath. It’s not easy, and it may be a long time before it gets better, but trust me, it will get better. But only if you breathe…
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