CONCEPTS: Take a breath

By Kenny Digby
Executive Director-Treasurer
Miss. Baptist Christian Action Commission

When things are tough, when tragedy strikes, we often say to the person suffering or sobbing, “Take a breath,” but when it’s us in that moment, we often stop what we do 24/7 — we stop breathing. I’m encouraging all of us born-again folks with a Biblical worldview to, “Take a breath.”

Perspective is a big word with me. I’m intense and I have tunnel vision. I too often lose perspective. I remember the presidential election of 1960 when I was eight years old. My father, Eugene Digby, followed politics at all three levels (local, state, and national).

I can remember going with Daddy and Uncle Dexter Digby to the election party on the side street in Fulton between the Itawamba County Times building and Elwood Shumpert’s barbershop, where I shined shoes. I had heard that Lyndon Johnson shined shoes as a boy and he became president of the United States (oh, well).

In 1960, John F. Kennedy defeated the U.S. vice president at the time, Richard Nixon, in the race for The White House. From then to 2016, there have been 28 years of “conservative” presidents and 28 years of “liberal” presidents. From my perspective, there has not been enough difference in the conservative 28 and the liberal 28.

Conservatives tend to moderate (as Daddy would say) or move to the middle (judges, politicians, even preachers), but liberals don’t. Too often liberals and conservatives end up kissing cousins on the left end of the stick. This is especially true of some so-called conservatives who are working on a project named for a former U.S. president.

Now, the last four years were different from the previous 56, whether you liked it or not. I still say deeds are far more important than words. Policy far outweighs personality. Substance vetoes style. Successful surgery is more important to me than the doctor’s bedside manner.

Take a breath. We still need to be salt and light. We definitely need to be involved in the policy-making process, but take a breath.

I am still very mindful that because far too many Baptists either did not vote in 2020 or put personal preferences above public policy, there will be even more babies who never take a breath because of abortion. In the U.S., even some babies who take a breath will be immediately discarded on the surgery room floor to die or taken to another room to be stripped of their organs and tissues in the name of science. Both are infanticide.

I am not a single issue guy. I work to be a biblical guy on every issue, but different issues demand different priorities. I once pointed out through this column that different sins have different consequences, and some of my readers blew a gasket. I would much rather someone curse me than kill me.

Well, different issues have different consequences. I would rather have a bad cold than a heart attack. I would rather tolerate boisterous words than condone late-term abortions.

I’m preaching to the choir, but I am also preaching to the conductor– me, Kenny Digby.

Because of what happened to our late son Austin, this topic of breathing is a painful subject. For a long time after he passed, I would not listen to the Christian group, NeedtoBreathe. I had to tell myself over and over to take a breath — physically, emotionally, spiritually. I now keep a channel for the group NeedtoBreathe on my Pandora radio. God is good.

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). I would remind you that both the Hebrew word and the Greek word for air, wind, breath, and spirit are the same word.

In these crises days, we need the illumination of the Word through the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to be founded on the Word, filled with the Spirit, saturated with the Word, sanctified by the Spirit, centered in the Word, and controlled by the Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, TAKE A BREATH. TAKE A LONG, DEEP BREATH.

Editor’s Note: Opinions expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, The Baptist Record, nor the publication’s Advisory Committee. The author may be contacted at kdigby@christianaction.com.