Posted by On June 14, 2025, Croatian freediver Vitomir Maričić, while sitting in a bottom of a 3-meter deep pool, held his breath for 29 minutes and 3 seconds. This set the longest breath-hold world record.
The Bajau people, or “Sea Nomads” of Southeast Asia, spend up to 60% of their day underwater. They are famed for their incredible free-diving abilities. Instead of relying on modern scuba tanks, they use traditional handmade wooden goggles and weighted belts, hunting with simple spears and hand lines.
Their extraordinary underwater longevity is driven by an adapted genetic trait known as the “sea nomad gene.” This gene mutation leads to a larger spleen, which stores and releases oxygen-rich red blood cells into the bloodstream when the body experiences the physiological low oxygen. They can stay underwater for 5 to 10 minutes.
For us normal people, 30 to 90 seconds is all we can last without breathing. Breathing is important, though many times we take it for granted, until the day we have difficulty breathing.
Some say that the heart is the most important organ of the body. Some says it is the brain. I beg to differ. I think it is the lungs, but of course I am biased. As a physician, I specialized on the lungs.
Let’s go to Genesis, when God created man:
Genesis 2:7: Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
I will argue then that it was the respiratory system that was activated first when God created man by breathing to Adam’s nostrils and into his lungs. Let’s follow the “breath of life” as it goes into the body of man:
The breath of life first entered the nose and into the nasal cavity. From there it traveled into the pharynx, then into the larynx which contains our vocal cords. Then it passed through the trachea which is a strong tube that carries the breath down our neck into our chest. Trachea then splits into two main bronchi (left and right), then it branches out into smaller tubes called bronchioles. At the end of the bronchioles are tiny air sacs called alveoli, where the oxygen and carbon dioxide switch places with your blood.
From the blood vessels in the lungs the “life-giving breath” was transported into the heart where it will be pumped out throughout the whole body.
The COVID virus and many other viruses gain entry to our body through the respiratory tract. The viruses attaches to the receptors on the cells lining the respiratory tract and then it forces the healthy cells to make copies of the virus, which destroys the lining cells. Our immune system responds with white blood cells rushing in to fight the virus causing heavy inflammation.
Here are the major lung complications caused by COVID and other similar viruses:
- Fluid accumulation: Damaged air sacs fill with fluid, cellular debris, and pus, stopping normal oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange.
- Pneumonia: The widespread inflammation in the air sacs turns into an infection known as pneumonia.
- ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome): Severe fluid leakage causes dangerous drops in blood oxygen, often requiring ventilator support.
- Blood Clots: The virus damages small blood vessels in the lungs, which can trigger tiny clots or pulmonary embolisms.
- Scarring (Pulmonary Fibrosis): Long-term tissue damage can leave the lungs stiff or scarred, causing lasting shortness of breath.
Here’s a 3-D CT scan image of lungs, the one on the left is normal and the one on the right is with COVID. No wonder, a person affected with it cannot breathe.
Sin can be like COVID or any virus that takes over our system, it blocks the entrance of the “breath of life.”
Here are simple ways to keep our lungs healthy:
- Don’t smoke: Quit smoking or vaping, and stay away from places that allow tobacco smoke.
- Exercise often: Do aerobic activities like brisk walking, running, or swimming to help your lungs work better.
- Drink water: Drink plenty of water so the mucus in your airways stays thin and clear.
- Breathe deep: Practice deep belly breathing to fully expand your lungs and improve airflow.
- Go outdoors: go out to get fresh air. Especially in places where there are lots of trees. Trees take in our exhaled carbon dioxide, and they turn it to oxygen which is what we need. How wonderful is our Creator who designed it that way!
Here’s more. The lung anatomy mirrors the tree anatomy. We definitely have one Designer and Creator.
What should our response be?
Psalm 150:6 states: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”
What is the sound of breathing? Let’s try this simple exercise. Open your mouth and forcefully inhale, and then exhale. What does it sounds like?
It sounds like YH-WH! Though not all Bible scholars or linguistics agree that is where the Hebrew name for God was from, but I just find it so interesting and compelling. God gives us our breath, and we should be thanking God for our every breath.
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Let’s look at a story in the Bible. It is actually a vision of Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 37: 1-10)
First of all, who is Ezekiel?
Ezekiel was from the tribe of Levi, and he was a priest-in-training. He was in his 20’s when Jerusalem was captured by Babylon, and he was taken as a captive. His life was rudely interrupted, from being a priest, to being a captive. But God used him and he became His prophet. When Ezekiel received this vision, he was in Babylon, among the Jewish exiles.
Sometimes our plan in this life takes a detour, but that may just mean God has a better purpose for us.
Ezekiel 37: 1-2
“The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.”
This vision is like a sci-fi or horror movie. Bones means it’s dead. Very dry bones, means it has been dead for a while. In Hebrew and Jewish tradition, leaving bones or a body unburied is considered a profound disgrace, a severe violation of Jewish law (Halakha). It is an insult to human dignity because humans are made in the divine image.
Ezekiel 37: 3-4
3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
The Hebrew word for breath in Ezekiel 37 is ruach, which also means wind or spirit. The first time this word ruach, appeared in the Bible is in Genesis 1:2 – “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
This means the active presence of God (Ruach Elohim) moving over the chaotic waters, ready to bring life and order. Same in Ezekiel’s vision, the active presence of God is ready to bring life to the dry bones!
Ezekiel 37: 7-8
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Have you heard of the gospel song titled “Dem Bones?” Here’s a video of the gospel song (from Ed Sullivan show).
So the song tells of the bones connecting to each other. But Ezekiel’s vision did not stop there – then tendons, flesh, muscles and skin were added. But one thing was still missing. No breath in them!
Ezekiel 37: 9-10
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
Only after receiving the breath of life, did the dry bones become alive and they become a vast army.
What is the meaning of the vision? If we continue reading down the chapter, it said that the bones is the nation of Israel. Even if they were defeated, exiled, disgraced, lifeless, and seemingly hopeless, God will restore them, will breathe life back to them, and they will live again.
We are like the people of Israel. We are dry bones. But God can restore us. He can make us live again.
Let’s look at another story in the Bible, in John 20. Here the disciples were gathered behind closed door. They were fearing for their lives. Why? Because Jesus, their leader, was arrested and subsequently crucified and died on Friday afternoon, and here the disciples were secretly gathered that following Sunday night. They were confused, depressed, defeated, frightened and feeling hopeless.
Then Jesus appeared in their midst. He did not walked through an open door, but miraculously appeared through the closed door. Then Jesus said:
Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:21-22)
The Greek work used “he breathed on” (enephysēsen) mirrors the Greek translation of Genesis 2:7, when God breathes life into Adam. So it appears Jesus is breathing life into His disciples.
We don’t need to guess what that breath means as it was clear in the text that breath is the Holy Spirit. We need to receive the Holy Spirit in order for us to live again spiritually.
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This summer we went to South Korea, not just for a vacation, but also to meet the family of “HS,” my son’s girlfriend. HS came with us on this trip.
Her father has been sick lately. He has received liver transplant when he was much younger, so he was immunocompromised due to the medications he is taking. During COVID pandemic, his lung condition worsened, that he became persistently out of breath, and progressed to requiring oxygen all the time.
Besides praying for him, HS also encouraged his father to study the Bible and know God more, for more important than physical breath, is the spiritual breath.
When we made the plan to meet them in South Korea, HS’s father was still at home in Jeju. A month before our trip, he needed to be hospitalized in Seoul, as his oxygen requirement was more than can be supplied at home. His condition became desperate, and his only hope was to get new lungs, meaning, he needs a lung transplant.
When we arrived in South Korea, we were able to visit HS’s father in the hospital, though they have strict rules. Only 2-3 visitors at a time, and only 1 hour a day was allotted for visitation. We were able to visit him twice, the second time, besides praying for him we also did the anointing – anointing for his healing, but more for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Few days later, HS’s father was transferred to the biggest hospital in Seoul, where they do lung transplantation. It was not a guarantee though that a lung would be available. That hospital had stricter rules – no visitors allowed except for one person, which is his wife, so we were not able to visit him again.
I know it was particularly hard for HS when we left South Korea, as we didn’t know if that was the last time she had with his father.
Three days after we flew back from South Korea, HS’s father’s condition became even more critical. He was transferred to the ICU. He was placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). ECMO is when one’s blood through a large catheter is drained out of the body, then run through a machine where it is bathe with oxygen, then the blood is pumped back to the body. It is a temporizing measure only, for patients cannot stay on ECMO for long, usually only 2-3 weeks at the most, due to developing complications.
HS’s father was given 3 weeks, and unless he get a lung transplant, that would be the end of the line for him.
His family and us continued our fervent prayers. He said that it was a difficult prayer for him to make, for he understand that for him to receive new lungs, someone has to die. He did not want to pray a “selfish” prayer, so he surrendered everything to God.
On his second week on ECMO, in a providential turn of events, a set of lungs became available. He was given a gift of life as he got a lung transplant. Of course someone died to be that organ donor. One family’s loss, is another family’s gain. Only in heaven will we fully understand why these things happen.
HS’s father received the physical breath of life, but more than that, he also received the spiritual breath of life, as he now take a closer walk with God. I am sure he would share his testimony someday.
We are all destined to die. But Jesus came and died for all of us, so we can receive the breath of eternal life. May we all accept this gift.
(*I shared this message in our local church; photos and video taken from the internet.)