Answer me, LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. – Psalm 69:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 1, 2016): Psalm 69

Maybe of all the faiths, Christianity spends the least thought and practice on what is probably the most elemental activity of our existence – our breathing. We breathe, we do it continually and often without even thinking or paying attention to what we are doing. Breath is drawn in and then expelled back out. Many faiths spend time just concentrating on the breaths that we take and the way that we breathe. In Tibetan Buddhism, one of the breath practices is a form of meditation called Tonglen. Tonglen is the act of giving and receiving, of breathing in and out. And as we breathe out we send out happiness and blessing onto the people in our lives, in our circle of influence and into our world. But when we breathe in, we breathe in the suffering that surrounds us. Breathing out we bless the world and breathing in we take the suffering of our world on ourselves. Tonglen is supposed to reduce selfish attachment, increase our freedom from lust, cravings and desire, create positive karma in our lives and develop and expand our sense of benevolence, or what the Buddhists call our metta. Metta is what the English Bible sometimes calls lovingkindness or the goodness of your love.

It is essentially what David is asking of God. That God would perform the Tonglen, breathing out blessing on David and breathing in the suffering that is currently dominating David’s life. And according to David, God would do this because of his metta, his benevolence or lovingkindness. It was the response of God’s great mercy given to David.

Maybe what David and the rest of us miss is that God is asking the same of each of us – that we would breathe out blessing and breathe in the suffering of this world. After all, that is exactly what Jesus did for us, and we are being shaped; we are becoming more and more like him.

So, maybe it is time for us to pay attention to the way that we breathe. And allow this world to receive God’s lovingkindness as a result of our breath.       

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 70