All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. – Psalm 38:9Why do we sigh? Science tells us we sigh to “reset” ourselves. We sigh in anticipation of something: this something can be good or bad, but is usually bad. It is a physiological function allowing us to brace ourselves, and go into whatever we’re headed into with some type of boldness and freshness. Sighing is like groaning in the psychological sense. It is a nice way of groaning; but regardless, it carries the the same weight— sighing is the expression of our displeasure. I’m told I sigh a lot. In fact, I’m told my sighing is plain offensive. It’s my way of complaining. When somebody wants something from me, I sigh. The level of my sigh gives away the level of my displeasure without my having to express that displeasure. Sometimes, I sigh before phone calls because I need the deep breath to face the conversation that awaits. The funny thing is, I’d never noticed that anyone had noticed my sighing. But people definitely notice. Perhaps they do not notice all the time; but, they notice your heart pounding, your strength failing, and even the dark circles forming around your eyes as a result of your sighing. Whatever it is in our lives that cause us to sigh, we all have to agree that we long for God to do something about it. So we sigh louder and louder into the heavens and hope that God catches a glimpse, and wait impatiently for God to answer. We sigh again, this time against the anticipation of waiting for God’s response; and still, we have nothing. We try not to sigh before God, exasperated, thinking He sees it and experiences it but ignores our groaning and longing. All we want is for God to save us and all we feel is the feebleness in our knees, about to fall with pain pervading through our limping bodies and burned-out minds and broken hearts. We take one last deep sigh and say: “Lord, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.” (Psalm 38:21-22 NIV) The deep sigh is our prayer and our single greatest longing to God. Rest assured: at the end of that sigh, God is with you. He is your savior and whatever you are about enter into, you are now reset with Him and He will deliver you. Sigh deeply, and God will not be far from you.