What Matters Most?
What Matters Most?
How long can you hold your breath? As I prepared to write today’s column, I took 3 deep breaths, closed my eyes, and held my breath for one minute and six seconds. The average healthy person can hold their breath between one and two minutes. However, the person most famous for holding their breath is magician David Blaine, who set a world record on the Oprah Winfrey show, by holding his breath a remarkable 17 minutes, four seconds.
How Blaine achieved this remarkable feat is fascinating. For months he would begin each day by breathing for a total of only 8 of the first 52 minutes he was awake. This exercise proved surprisingly difficult because it deprived his brain of oxygen, causing him horrible headaches. But he was intent on breaking the world record and refused to quit. In addition, Blaine also lost 50 pounds over three months to help increase his lung capacity.
Before Blaine’s record-breaking attempt, he breathed pure oxygen for 23 minutes. This saturated his body with incredibly high oxygen levels, helping him set a new world record on April 30, 2008.
The famous magician and stuntman achieved even greater fame by sharing his experience in a TED talk, a brief motivational speech that often inspires millions. His TED talk, How I Held My Breath for 17 Minutes is rated number 12 on a list of the 20 Best Short TED Talks.
When reading about Blaine’s record, I reflected upon the words of Solomon, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10, NIV) It is great to set challenging goals and work hard to achieve them while we can, however, Solomon reminds us that not everything we do in our lives is worthy of our total commitment.
As remarkable as Blaine’s record and TED talk are, I am not sure his achievement was worth pursuing with the energy and determination they required. Less than 13 years after Blaine set his world record it was shattered by professional freediver, Budimir Sobat on March 27, 2021, when he held his breath 24 minutes, 37 seconds.
Setting a world record is amazing, but living with an eternal perspective is more significant. Being fully committed to loving God, serving him, and loving others and serving them, are what matters. Our commitment to living this way has the potential to not make us famous for a few years, but to make a difference for eternity and that is the definition of a significant life.