I heard someone say recently 50,000 Americans die every year from secondhand smoke. Wow. Now I’m not writing about how smoking is wrong. We all have our habits and patterns and vices and pleasures that aren’t the best for us.
But 50,000 people. Each year. People who don’t even smoke. But are around other people who do.
Which begs the question: Do I hang out with smokers? Do you?
Slowly but surely, without us even noticing, the smoke enters our system and begins to wreak havoc.
But we have to breathe in order to live don’t we? To live is to breathe and to breathe is to live. On average we take 28800 breaths per day.
Which begs another question: What kind of air do we breathe?
Humans need oxygen in order to survive. Like oxygen, humans need other humans in order to survive. Other people remind us we are not alone. Other people give us strength to keep going. Other people become a part of us. Other people breathe life into us.
You know, from the very beginning, life and breath and relationships have been closely connected. With one breath and one word God spoke creation into existence. The birds and the sky and the water and the trees and the beasts and the plants…and humans. And He had perfect relationship with them and them with each other. In Genesis 2:7 we read, “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The Hebrew word for ‘breath’ is ruwah. God literally took a deep breath and breathed His Spirit into Adam and gave him life.
Adam needed air to live. He needed air like he needed God.
I grew up in the country. And there is nothing like walking outside on a clear and crisp Spring morning and taking one long deep breath through the nostrils. Pure. Unpolluted. Uncorrupted. Untainted. (Except of course when easterly winds would transport the stench of dung from a nearby farm). Other than that of course, you felt healthier and more alive and somehow purified from all the exhaust and secondhand odor of the city.
I can’t imagine what that first breath was like for Adam. The very creator of the universe breathed into him. In that moment, only one thing impacted and influenced and rubbed off on Adam. God. He needed God like he needed air. And they were one.
But God wasn’t done. In 2:18 we read, “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” So God provided Adam a woman. And they were one with God and each other.
You know the rest of the story. The clean country air didn’t last very long. Adam and Eve weren’t content with the life God breathed into them. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The floodgates of sin opened. A tsunami-sized ripple effect sent humanity into a furious tailspin. Family-friendly air suddenly was filled with smoke…
Like Adam, we need helpers. We need relationship like we need to breathe. Without it, we are helpless, alone, afraid, weak, and purposeless.
But negative relationships are like inhaling secondhand smoke. We are whom we hang out with. If we’re not careful, the bitterness and complaining and jealousy and sarcasm and selfishness and anger of those we hang out with can corrupt us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character.”
We will never grow and mature and reach our potential if we are breathing bad air day after day after day. It’s time to take a stand. Though Jesus loved and interacted with everyone, he was very selective and intentional and strategic about whom he spent the most time with. The more we breathe in good air, the less affected we’ll be by the bad air. Secondhand smoke isn’t bad if it doesn’t affect us.
Like Jesus, there are three levels of people we should surround ourselves with.
Someone above us. A confidant. Jesus had a mentor. It was his father. He took in the breath of his father daily. We need people older and wiser and more seasoned and more experienced to breathe life into us.
Someone next to us. A constituent. Jesus had his inner circle, John and Peter. They were honest with him and he was honest with them. For the most part, they had his best interests in mind. They were for him, not against him. They loved him for who he was not for what he did for them.
Someone under us. A comrade. Jesus didn’t ignore the lepers and prostitutes and tax collectors and religious people and sinners. These are actually the people Jesus lived for. But because he filled himself to the brim with the breath of his father, he was ready to give himself away. He was the influencer not the influencee.
So back to our question: What kind of air do you breathe? Are you breathing in secondhand smoke and you don’t even know it because you are so used to it? Are you willing to say ‘no’ to others so you can say ‘yes’ to God?
So may we commit ourselves to being healthy on the inside. May we realize what we breathe in is what we eventually breathe out. May we know we our God’s temple and His ruwah lives inside us (1 Cor. 3:16). May we not resist secondhand smoke altogether, but may we approach it prayerfully and carefully and patiently and with a helper.
And may we be so filled with the breath of God, that those around us become intoxicated.
With the Spirit. Secondhand.