You might need to take a pause. Or, perhaps you are already in a pause.
No matter, pauses are good for your soul, body, mind, spirit and the work you are about.
( I am speaking to high-driving folk, if you are always on pause you might want to get going with something, anything! )
A pause, a true pause ( not the, I’m in the dessert because of my unbelief and lack of courage kind of pause ), but a true pause, is essential to your life.
“It’s going to be okay. Even though many things are not okay, everything is okay. You are going to go through some rough times but you will come through with joy and peace. God will do this in and through you.
On this International Women’s Day what comes to mind is the power of a dance, of stepping forward and of stepping back, of engaging forward and of making way.
It doesn’t matter if we are men or women we must all learn to both step up to the plate, and to step back as we make way for others.
If we are only ever stepping forward we end up stepping on others toes. No one else has a chance to speak; there is no give and take.
Each one of us has a journey. Each one of us has parts of our journey’s that we would rather leave behind, with pain and shame and regret woven through. How do we overcome these things? Can we move forward and on what basis?
Its been a bit of a rough day. Actually a few rough days. Not all the way, but in terms of a difficult conversation that has taken a fair bit of emotional energy and tenacity to stick with.
So I’m a bit worn out. But I’m remembering, and drawing strength from, the memory of an interview some years back with a fellow (sorry I can’t remember his name right now) who was working for the Dream Center in LA.
He was in charge of the food distribution to skid-row some 4-6 days a week where they fed hundreds of homeless folk every day.
I was at the time beginning to understand that no matter how much we give there are things still beyond our ability to really put a dent in, and I thought he just might know what I was talking about.
So I asked him, “At the end of the day when you’ve fed hundreds of people, and having done this for years, how do you keep going when it still isn’t enough?”
Without a seconds hesitation he immediately replied, “Well, you know where in the Bible John the Baptist is asked about his identity and his reply is, “I’m not the Christ” This is what I remember, I’m not the Christ.”
And this is what I am remembering today as well.
It’s strength to my bones and heart.
It is each of our responsibilities to nurture a glad heart within ourselves.
A glad heart is a barometer and its also a buffer.
A glad heart tells us when we are being true to ourselves or when we are not.
A glad heart is the oil of life that makes living sweet.
Without a glad heart we become brittle and even caustic.
Without a glad heart our words and our manner no longer bless others and our favour on earth becomes lost.
Everything begins to dry up and atrophy.
We want glad hearts.
We must nurture glad hearts.
First in ourselves, then in others.
This begins with the simple question, “What makes me glad?”
By what am I refreshed? Where do I find joy? How am I delighted?
Make your list – seriously.
Nurturing a glad heart requires a commitment on the one who owns the heart and it requires intentionality to care for said heart.
It’s not something you can be without this year.
I’ve watched numerous biographical movies and read many biographical books of those arrested under communist regimes. There is always one point that remains the same from story to story. It doesn’t matter which continent or country in every story the one under arrest must agree to their guilt by signing a paper indicating, ‘Yes this charge against me is true.’
Of course, the charge is never true. And much, the entirety in fact, of the person’s time in prison is spent by the prison authorities working to obtain this agreement of their guilt. All of the tortures and atrocities are meant to break a person whereby they end up saying, ‘Yes what you say about me is true.’
It is as though the regime, the authorities, have no clear way of determining punishment until the agreement is made.
But isn’t this the same in all our lives?
Isn’t this but an extreme example of the same battle each and every day where we must choose to stand up for who we are, truly are, or give way to the barrage of lies about us.
We give the second witness that determines our future. We either agree to the lies or we stand in the truth.
There is no two ways about it. It truly is one or the other.
Which are you agreeing to today?
