Are you tired from the hurry and go pace of life?

Are you drained from the people in your life taking a piece of you?

Are you exhausted from trying to fill the space around you with your relevance?

A few weeks ago, a friend and I were driving to a meeting and talking about life.  We wondered when should the time come to hit a pause button.

Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for everything. “…a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted, …a time for tearing down and a time for building up, …a time for crying and a time for laughing, …a time for mourning and a time for dancing, …a time for searching and a time for losing”

A pause button: why is it needed?

1. to champion others, and
2. to get back on track with who we are

It’s our turn. Right now. We have the task of being Jesus and sharing Jesus. That’s on us. Now. A whole lot of people had that task before us, and a whole lot of other people will have it after we are gone.  It is our job to champion them. Make known those heroes of the faith who came before. Speak of them. Learn from them. Be inspired by them, and be motivated to do your part. We have to do this right, so those after us have a stronger foundation on which to stand.

Verse 13 of the last chapter of Ecclesiastes helps with the second part of why a pause button is needed: “The end of the matter…Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” That’s also our how-to! This is how we get back on track. Fear God means to respect him. To know him. To be changed by him.

What would a pause button look like for you? A quiet ride through the plains of Western Kansas? A weekend get-away with some friends? Going to a movie by yourself? A massage? A hike around Lake Shawnee? Quiet time to read a good book? Enjoying a hobby for a few hours a week? Going fishing?

The pause is knowing when the time for not doing something is… It’s now time to laugh, or to dance or to let go.

As I wrote earlier, we spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to fill the space around us with our relevance. We are not that special! It’s just our turn! Our space needs to be filled with God, and a pause gives us that opportunity to refocus so that we give our best to God.

-Mari