God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us — Selah. (Psalm 67:1 NAS95)
Selah simply means pause, and it calls us to attend to what has gone before. Here I need to weigh God’s graciousness and kindness — His face, countenance, with a broad smile shining my direction.
I felt like, or should I say I was very surprised by the pause God gave me, as I considered how He gave it to me.
One day in July of this year, as I exercised on our elliptical, and as usual, I listened to something by Dallas Willard as I did. God caused me to pause so I drifted away from the talk by Willard and my attention turned toward Him. My mind had turned to what I needed to prepare for sharing with aspiring spiritual directors in the upcoming month of September. I had been pondering that on and off with God for a while, but as I ran on the elliptical, God gave me the outlines — Selah — His face shone upon me.
After I cleaned up, I sat in front of my computer and put those outlines on cyber paper, believing God knew best, and thanking Him for it. Prayers had gone before this time and many came after, but I had to submit the outlines in early August, well before I delivered them in person.
God continued engage me with the topics, but the outlines came out of that pause, that interruption that surprised me in the middle of a Willard talk while I was running on our elliptical.
I could not have asked for what happened as I shared. Of course, the week offered a lot of time for those participating in the training to be present to God, but nonetheless, God moved, touched lives, and transformed hearts. I felt carried almost as if God prayed the talks through me. I can’t explain it. The experience lingered too. Gratitude swelled up in my heart in ways I couldn’t imagine.
A person asked to bow to worship God. We worshiped in the middle of it all. Yes, I was surprised by a pause. I was surprised by God’s face shining on all present. I learned. Listen when God asks you to pause. He has more in store when we do that. All I had to do was pause and attend to what had gone before, and after, the blessing of the full surprise gave me pause again in September.
For Reflection:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NAS95)
- When have you experienced God asking you to pause and pay attention?
- How are you cultivating your ear to hear when God calls for a pause?
