“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” -Mark Twain

I have been trying to hit the pause button in my life a little more often lately.
It seems the busier life gets, the less time I have to pause and yet….the craving for the pause grows stronger within me.

To be perfectly honest with you, pausing can be hard for me.  With all the hustle and bustle of life I find myself scurrying from one noisy  thing to the next. And while I crave the quiet I am also at times uncomfortable with the quiet. 

The noisier life gets, the more accustom to it that I become.

The chatter, the pick-ups, the drop-offs, the obnoxiousness, the arguing, the laughing, the instructing. It’s all going on at once. It’s my constant background noise. But then suddenly I will find myself with a moment void of kids or responsibilities (oh glorious moment!) and I will sit down with my tea and start reading my devotions. And there are mornings where I could do this for hours and never grow tired of it.  But other times I feel exposed, vulnerable and bare in the wake of the silence. It’s uncomfortable. And there’s a part of me that yearns for some noise. Just a little. Something that will distract me from the painful process of growth.

Isn’t there a Pinterest craft I could be working on? Perhaps I should try my hand at a fancy new recipe. There’s always a kid’s room that could use some cleaning & organizing.

Why is it that I always feel I need to be doing something?

Because doing something is always easier than being someone.

The kitchen needs to be cleaned & and a load of laundry thrown in? Bam! Give me 30 minutes and I’ll have both done. Check. Moving on…

My heart needs a little attitude check? I need to take some thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ? Hmm…might take a little longer than that half hour time slot.  Being not only takes more time than doing, it’s also usually more painful.  Sometimes I wonder, “Is it worth it?”

But the other day I got a reminder that YES, pausing to be in His presence will always be worth it. Letting him take the chisel to my hardened heart and mold me into the person I was designed to be will always be worth the pain.  I was reading in Psalms 23. “True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.”

The words were like water to this dry & weary soul and I realized God was telling me that pausing helps me catch my breath. Taking time to be in His presence, read the Bible and listen to His voice…all these things help me catch my breath. This verse just feels so personal to me. I feel like God is calling us over, saying “Come on over here, sit down on this big comfy couch with me. Put your feet up & grab a cup of tea (or coffee, or whatever your liquid vice is) and kick back and relax with me. Let’s catch up. Tell me what’s on your mind. Let me tell you what’s on mine.  I promise when we’re done you will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of your day. Hit PAUSE for a minute so that when you hit PLAY you can embrace all that I have for you today. I’ll send you off in the right direction, don’t worry.”

He’s assuring us that the pay-off for the time we invest in Him will be worth it!

In music, it’s the pauses that make the rhythms.

Perhaps in life it’s the pauses that make the rhythms too.

Perhaps learning how to pause is a very essential part of learning how to live. 

And here’s a thought. Maybe my pauses don’t always have to be on the couch with my Bible and tea. Maybe I can pause in a car full of kids in the middle of a hectic day. Maybe I can pause while walking in to work.  Maybe I can pause in the middle of a dicey conversation.

Perhaps it’s learning the art of deciphering when and where and how long we need to pause.

In music there is something called a caesura, or a grand pause which indicates a brief, silent pause, during which time is not counted.

What if we could learn in our own lives when to take a break? To pause and linger over something. To tarry for a while. And to not “count it ” against ourselves. What if we saw it as the gift it is instead of crumbling under the weight & pressure to assign guilt to anything that doesn’t have an appearance of producing?  Sometimes we don’t take the pauses we need because of our pride. We wonder what others might think or say if we don’t look like we are “busy doing something.” But then other times we hesitate to pause because we think we need to carve out a whole block of time when really all God is asking from us is that we give him the next few moments.

As we spend time with him I believe we will learn to discern what type of pause we need.

Psalm 27:14 in the New Living Translation says this,

“Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”

I love this verse. I love how the words brave & courageous are tucked neatly inside the bookends of “wait patiently for the Lord.”

Waiting patiently, pausing, can be an act of bravery & courage.

What type of pause do you need in your life today? Is God asking you to carve out some alone time with Him. Maybe more than your usual time that you spend with him day to day? Or is he reminding you today that even in the midst of your busy schedule you can pause and give Him a moment. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

“Silence is the pause in me when I am near to God.” -Arvo Part