Through A Tunnel: Hold Your Breath!

Jen and I decided to go hiking this weekend since we have been doing lots of wedding planning and not enough exercise. So we hopped on I-90 East, and came upon a tunnel that digs right under the hill on the embankment of Lake Washington.

"Remember to hold your breath while we are in the tunnel!" I said eagerly as we approached the dark entrance. Other people do this too, right? I know lots of people that hold their breath through tunnels, but I don't really know why we do it.

Seeing the rays of light beaming in at the end of the tube, we are both thinking, Drive faster! I can't make it! Must have oxygen! When we finally reached the bright light and the edge of the lake, we gasp for air loudly and I exclaim, "Wow! I almost didn't make it!"

We thought nothing of that little experience at the time. We continued on our trip to Rattlesnake Lake, hiking up to Rattlesnake Ledge. It's a pretty steep hike for 2 miles uphill, and if you haven't been exercising like us, then you'll probably have to take a few breaks on the way up to enjoy the scenery. We got to the top, enjoyed the view, and made our way back down to the beautiful little lake.

But the point of this post is on our drive back. When we crossed the floating bridge on I-90, preparing ourselves to hold our breath under the tunnel again, we were ready for another long time without oxygen.

We both took a deep breath, entered the dark hillside... and then we came out the other side! "What the... that was so much easier than this morning!" I was surprised to say to my fiancee. She agreed and we concluded that it was likely the good hike expanding our lungs that allowed us to hold our breath through the tunnel with ease this second time around.

Just a little exercise helped us with something we found difficult earlier. What other parts of our lives would be much easier if we just exercised ourselves? How much easier would it be to have faith in Jesus if we exercised ourselves by investing our time into what is really important?



Satellite image courtesy Google Maps