Transcript
Speaker: So let me guess where you are right now. You're in the car in the parking lot. The engine is off. no but Not ready to go inside yet. Maybe it's the hospital, the classroom, the office, break room, the dorm or the driveway.
Speaker: And you need just five more minutes before you put that smile back on. Yeah, I see you. And here's what nobody told you. You're not weak.
Speaker: You're winded. There's a big difference between someone who can't do it and someone who hasn't caught that breath.
Speaker: Because life sometimes can come at you so fast and so often that it seems as if you can't breathe. I've been there.
Speaker: We're round by round, hit after hit. It ain't one thing, it's another can put you in a messed up head space, right?
Speaker: And I want to talk to somebody who hasn't been able to catch their breath. What's up, family?
Speaker: Welcome back to Mixing It Up. I'm Sylvester Mixon, and today we're keeping it short, strong, and honest. Today's title is Breathe, Don't Faint.
Speaker: You know, Paul wrote this in Galatians chapter six, verse nine. He says, and let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. Look at the condition.
Speaker: It's not if you are the smartest. It's not if you've never messed up. It's if we faint not. Due season is coming. But the criteria is you can't quit.
Speaker: Due season is coming, but don't faint. You see, the biggest threat to your harvest usually isn't failure. It's fainting before your season turns. Right before the breakthrough, right before things change in your favor. You see, most people don't lose because they're beating themselves.
Speaker: They lose because they were worn down a little at a time until they quit three feet from the finish line. And it's not just you. The numbers say we are literally living in a tired generation.
Speaker: In Rand's 2025 State of the American Teacher Survey, 53% of teachers reported burnout. Y'all, that's more than half of the people raising our kids for seven hours a day.
Speaker: Yeah. Barna surveyed senior Protestant pastors in December of 2025. And 24% of the pastors said that they seriously considered leaving full-time ministry in this past year.
Speaker: That's one in four pulpits. When Barna asked why back in 2022, the top answers were the immense stress of the job.
Speaker: And here's another one feeling lonely and isolated. Yeah. Here's what gets me. Classroom or pulpit, nursing station, dorm, police vehicle, assembly line, cubicle, wherever your job is, battlefield, the reason is the same.
Speaker: We have too much weight and not enough people to carry it with us. And it's not just a church problem or a school problem. This is a human problem.
Speaker: how do you keep from fainting? So glad you asked. You got to learn to breathe. And here are three breaths I want you to lock into. Breath number one is remember.
Speaker: Remember. Genesis 2 and 7 says God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.
Speaker: When God breathed, he became the Hebrew word. There is Neshama. The breath God gives. That means you've been running on borrowed breath from day one.
Speaker: You didn't start yourself. So got to stop acting like you have to sustain yourself. I just got to keep me. Oh, somebody has been holding you up the whole time.
Speaker: Somebody bigger than you, more powerful than you. Somebody that created you, that created the whole universe. Right. Somebody has got your back when you feel like nobody has your back.
Speaker: The pressure that you're under is real, but it is not the only thing holding You got to remember the God that gave you breath. Right.
Speaker: It's giving you life. Come on. It's holding your life together. Right. This even at times when it may feel like it is falling apart. I need you to remember. i need you not only to remember the God that gave you breath, but I need you to remember that if God made a way for you before.
Speaker: And, you know, he did. Come on. Testify. Somebody ought to testify. oh Oh, somebody ought to. OK. Testify.
Speaker: ah Right. If God did it before, then he will do it again. Remember breath. Number two, release, release.
Speaker: In John 20, verse 22, Jesus had just walked out of the grave and he walks into a locked room full of scared disciples. And before he gives them a single assignment,
Speaker: He breathed on them and said to them, receive you the Holy Ghost. I'm about to get him now a again. Praise he's God.
Speaker: First, look at what look at the process that before they started performing, he put them in the process provision. He said, feel first, then go.
Speaker: Feel first, then go. Right? Jesus is saying to us, we got to fill up before we pour out. Because you can't pour from an empty cup.
Speaker: Come on. You are necessary. We need you. Come on, friend. We need you. But you got to fill up on God first and on the things you need first, then go.
Speaker: But you know what we do? We flip that. We go and go and go. And then we wonder why we're empty. Some of us have been trying to carry this year on the breath that we took three years ago.
Speaker: You can't hold your breath forever. Eventually, you have to exhale the offense, the anxiety, the pain, and the need to be everything for everybody So there's room for something fresh in your life.
Speaker: Right. Come on. We got to exhale that stuff so that we can receive. There's some things you just got to release so you can position your life to receive. And some of us, we just to follow the wrong things right now.
Speaker: and And I believe that it's time to start releasing those things that don't qualify for this next season in your life so that you can receive all that life has to offer.
Speaker: Breath number three, rhythm. Mark 1 and 35 says in the morning, rising up a great while before day. He went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.
Speaker: Jesus had a whole world to save y'all. And he still had a rhythm. He stepped away on purpose. There has to be time and space in your life daily where you step away from people on purpose so you can pray, so that you can meditate, so that you can get into a place and reset your mind, refocus so that you can run well the day that is before you.
Speaker: Right. He had a big assignment. And for big assignments, you need necessary alignment time. Getting your head and your heart in alignment. That's a rhythm.
Speaker: ah So that you're focused, so that you are able to clearly think about your day, plan your day, schedule what you need to schedule, remove what you need to remove, approach the day in authority and not being drugged by your day.
Speaker: Be honest with me. Your hair appointment is on your calendar. Your oil change is on your calendar. Your kids' practice is in ball with a reminder. Now, where's your recovery?
Speaker: Oftentimes that's a if I get to at least. But here's the truth. What you don't schedule, you eventually sacrifice. Right. And the truth is, is that it's not scheduled. You need to pencil that in. You need to put that in the calendar. Apple cow. Google cow. It needs to be in there so that you can make intentional time for you. Think about a free diver. Right.
Speaker: These folks, they swim deep into the ocean on one breath. I was watching this on Instagram a few weeks ago, and it was amazing to watch how they're able to do this. Now, I personally can't swim.
Speaker: ah So you pray for your boy. But ah think about a free diver. Their strength isn't the secret. Their breathing is the secret.
Speaker: Right. They got the great body, great condition, physically fit. But that's not the secret weapon. It's their breathing. Divers know also a danger called shallow water blackout that you can lose consciousness under the water with little or no warning.
Speaker: Often catch this, y'all near the end of the dive close to the surface, almost out. Close to the surface.
Speaker: That's the part that preaches. Right. And a lot of people don't faint at the bottom of a hard season. They faint near the top right before the breakthrough because they spent the whole dive thrashing instead of breathing.
Speaker: Oh, God. Hear me, the deeper your assignment, the more disciplined your breathing has to be. Okay, so three practical things you can try today to do this, right?
Speaker: If you're going to breathe and not faint, here three things I need you to do. Number one, think about the 60-second reset. and You can do this in the morning. You can do this at lunch. You can do this at night before you go to bed.
Speaker: You want to breathe in for five,
Speaker: Hold for five. Out for five. Three times. Breathe in Hold for five. Out for five.
Speaker: Three times. And while you do it, say in your mind, I'm still here. And God is still good. Nobody will know that you did it, but you. but I want you to get your breathing right.
Speaker: Number two, name your fainting flags, right? You think about that car. We drive that car. And too many of us drive that car and the warning lights are on.
Speaker: You got the check engine light going on. Come on. You got this the the gas tank light going on. Lights everywhere. How long do you think that car is going to go with all of the warning lights on? They are there for a reason to warn you of a deeper issue. And it's the same thing with our lives.
Speaker: Everybody has warning lights. And maybe you snap on people that you love. Maybe you're really negative and cynical right now. Maybe you got a short fuse. Maybe you're scrolling until 2 a.m.
Speaker: Maybe you're stuck in comparison right now. Maybe it's you need to stop returning them text messages and and get or getting the commentary, clapping back.
Speaker: and And here's the truth. Those aren't character flaws. They're check engine lights. When one comes on, you just got to pull over before you break down. So that's that 60 second breathing reset. It's name and your fainting flag.
Speaker: And third and final, tell one person, remember what the research said. Loneliness is a big part of why people quit. So this week, I want you to text one trusted person.
Speaker: Text them. Let them know. Man, I'm tired more than I've been letting on. I haven't been honest with you. I'm i'm worn out. And I need you to cover me. That one text might be the breath that keeps you in the race.
Speaker: Just to know somebody knows, somebody cares, just to have someone to share that with is so life-changing. So I want you to sit with these and don't rush them.
Speaker: Ask yourself this, where am I thrashing when I should be breathing? Where am I thrashing when I should be breathing? What's on my calendar that God never assigned me?
Speaker: Yeah. And here's if I keep this pace up for 90 more days, how much will it cost me?
Speaker: I close with this. You're not weak. You're winded. And remember. Release and find your rhythm. Don't faint near the surface.
Speaker: You are closer than it feels. I know some things are going on. I know it seems heavier in this season, but I need you to breathe. I need you to release some stuff, and I need you to find your new rhythm.
Speaker: You are almost at your breakthrough. You're almost at the finish line. so Don't you dare give up. Don't faint. You're almost there. Now, before you go, ah my new book is out and it's called The Gap.
Speaker: And it's about that stretch between where you are and where you're called to be. I'm signing copies on Saturday, November the 7th from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. And the location is going to drop soon. So go out and head over to SylvesterMixen.com and I want you to grab a copy.
Speaker: Get the details. Find me on every platform. And by all means, leave me a review. It's also ah coming out on Goodreads. So go there. get Get your account and give us some feedback.
Speaker: Grab some of the quotes from the book. It's going to be amazing. And find us out there. If this episode gave you some air, do me a favor. Share it. Be a share warrior.
Speaker: um And sow this into somebody's life so they can stay in the race. I'm Sylvester Mixon, and this is Mixing It Up.
Speaker: Building people, building leaders, building cultures. Breathe. Don't you faint. We out.
