"Life In Every Breath"

My morning commute is, thankfully, uneventful. I spend the time thinking about yesterday, pumping myself up a bit for today, and flipping channels on my XMRoadie. This morning, I stopped on the Cinemagic channel (nothing getting my attention on the HearMusic/Starbucks channel), and there was a portion of the score and dialogue of The Last Samurai. The two leads are talking, one a Samurai Warrior and the other a Civil War-scarred American. They understand each other, the pain, the nightmares, the guilt. But the Samurai has a refuge, a place to retire where he can ponder that all men die, and that there is still life in every breath.

Then my devotional this morning includes this sentence: "God's love is always infinitely deeper than our awareness or expression of it" (James Montgomery Boice). Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4 that "Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions..." - and the sentiment of the Samurai has found a place where the death and guilt and sinfulness with which we are burdened can be dealt with gracefully in the fulness of life that comes through the love of God.

It's a freedom thing for me this morning - going back to work, getting back into a routine after the holidays. I hold too tightly, most of the time, to the triumphs and to the regrets of the past. It's difficult to find "life in every breath" if I'm living with these burdens and hindrances. God's love is above that, releases us from that - even while we're in the midst of life and all it's trappings, He's freeing us from it.

If He's freeing us from the burdens of life, why do we hold onto them still? I think it's because sometimes it really hurts to breathe life that deeply...