It seems like the conversation we should be having right now is about the word “pause.”
What does it mean?
Maybe the question for us is: Does pause apply to me? Should I pause? Do I need to pause? Why should I pause?
Recently, as my wife, Gina, and I spoke at the senior seminar, we were reflecting on our life. There was a moment where we took some big pauses. At the time, it seemed untenanable that we would actually pause. Additionally, there are times when the pause comes because you know there is no other thing you can do.
I want to take a moment to encourage you to pause.
Are you spending all your time chilling and relaxing? Maybe it’s time to pause on that and get to work. Are you spending an incredible amount of time frustrated and angry? Maybe it’s time to pause on that and just operate in a moment of peace. Are you finding yourself over-relaxed and always ignoring the major issues of the day? Maybe it’s time to pause on that and get engaged.
Pause can look different depending on where you are and what moment you are at in life. But certainly, God has built us with pause. When we go back to the book of Genesis, we recognize that we were made in God’s image according to Genesis 1:27, and then we also realize that God Himself in the creation of the universe took a moment, a break, and left a model for you and I.
I would encourage you to pause often.
Not only that, but when you pause, it doesn’t mean that you are doing nothing. To be at rest is not to do nothing. It is something of great value, something that your body, your mind, your heart and your soul desire.
You may find when you first try to pause, like I did, it is frustrating. I wanted to be busy. I wanted to fill that space with something. I love multitasking. I love seeing multitaskers. When I am talking to someone and they are doing something else, it makes me happy.
But really, the idea of pause is to just stop doing everything and do one thing. This one thing only. Try it. Maybe it’s just going to be for a minute at first; after that, try it for longer periods of time. After that, try major issues. Have you found that when something happens, you feel like it's your call to respond so quickly to it? Maybe that is a moment of pause.
Now this can happen in your classroom for sure. A fellow classmate says something in a conversation that you highly disagree with, and you want to blow them up. Maybe the moment is there for a pause. Someone has hurt you in some way you didn't expect, and you feel it is your right (and maybe it is) to correct them.
But before you do, the opportunity in front of you is one for pause.
I think about this when I think about Jesus. He wanted to come down off the cross, he wanted not to go in the first place. But I love that you can even feel the pause when you read his words in the Gospels, “Not my will, Lord, but your will.”
You have taken a few minutes to read this and I do appreciate it. I hope this week you will consider that conversation you are going to have with someone or that meeting you are going to or that big thing that you feel has to get done and ask yourself, “could this be a moment I need to pause?”
