If you made it to chapter 4 before starting to figure out what a nooma is, you aren’t alone. In writing the book it was a struggle to know what to say about the “inner, unseen part” of a person that Tim’s mom describes as the thing that makes you, you. Even now I don’t want to get ahead of the book in my comments, so here goes.

“Nooma” is my spelling variant on the Greek word, pneuma (pronounced nooma). According to the New Testament Lexical Aids (Spiros Zodhiates) the word pneuma means breath… of the vital breath “breath of life.” It goes on to say; “Generally, spirit as distinct from the body and soul. Soul and spirit are very closely related because they are both immaterial and are contrasted with body.”

There is much more to say about the nooma (pnuema) and I will in weeks to come, but for right now I want to talk to the mechanics out there—and the rest of you are welcome to listen along. Mechanics know a lot about this subject, in fact, probably more than they realize. If you open up their tool chests, you’ll probably see some pneumatic tools.

My husband has a variety of pneumatic power tools. Because of the business he’s in, some of them are very large and potentially powerful. I say potentially powerful because laying there in his tool cabinet they look like little more than boat anchors. They are well built, but lifeless without air. Given a continual source of “wind” from an air compressor they are capable of amazing feats, but take it away and they are pretty useless. Expensive and impressive in appearance, but useless/lifeless without breath.

That pretty much describes me, and you as well. But where does our “breath” come from? Can I be both like the pneumatic tool and the breath that fuels it? I think about a newborn baby; they are fully equipped as they leave the womb, and yet the mother sighs a breath of relief when their first breath is taken.

The older I get the more amazed I am by the human body in all its intricate complexity, but as I write this I find myself equally amazed by an element of life that enters from the outside and invigorates me. I am reminded of Genesis 2:7 in the Bible, and how God breathed into the man that He created and he became a living being. I have no doubt that everything was in place, physiologically, for Adam’s life to exist. But he didn’t become a living being until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Astounding!

And what does that mean here and now? And what about the tempters? What is it they really want? Could it be…?