Well, not really.
But anyone who has spent a week with me at a teen or family camp may remember that I often speak of “inhaling the Word of God, exhaling prayer.” I suppose I’ve been using that phrase for three decades or more.
Today this showed up in my inbox, under the headline “Do This Breathing Exercise for Healthy Christian Living.” You can read the brief article (and I recommend you do) https://www.crossway.org/articles/do-this-breathing-exercise-for-healthy-christian-living/.
Gasp! It includes this sentence: “I like to think of Scripture and prayer as inhaling and exhaling because that shows the two necessarily go together. “
Usually I just say, “Inhale,” pause a moment, and then say, “Exhale.”
Inhale the Word of God; exhale prayer.
Simple.
In many circles there is much talk of plagiarism. The new president of a major denomination has been accused, as have several other “big name” Christians.
I don’t know the level of their guilt.
But ideas can’t be copyrighted.
After all, there is nothing new under the sun.
Obviously to cut and paste someone elses’ words/writings is stealing.
But I wasn’t robbed.
Though it could be that the author of the piece is a former camper of mine, who may not remember that he first heard the phrase under me. Or maybe the author came up with the idea by himself.
Either way, I’m not going to scream that he stole my idea.
I’ll simply rejoice that other people are learning about spiritual breathing.
Excuse me, it’s time for me to inhale.