“As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day “Thy will be done.” We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.” Alcoholics Anonymous
"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.” The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah…" psalms 46:10-11
I remember reading some psalm or the other and coming across the word "selah". I went searching for a definition and couldn't find one that definitively said "this means that". And believe you me I looked hard. I really wanted to be the one to say "I figured it out".
Alas, the closest I came was a term in music that meant "pause". It appears greater minds than mine had the same impulse. And so it is assumed that since the psalms were songs then the musical version of "selah" as pause made sense. And we know that "figure it out" is not a slogan. But we try anyway, lol.
What's funny also is that the term had the intended effect on me in that moment - I paused from reading. And in that pause I went in search of deeper understanding.
Of course there are moments, some deer in the headlights moments, in life when it is not possible to stop and contemplate. You just have to move.
Wisdom is being able to distinguish, more times than not, between those times. Jesus didn't take on every battle that came his way. There were times when he saw the mob, understood the timing of the moment, and ran the other way.
Like most things wisdom comes with experience and experience means doing, practice. The more you practice the better you become.
This is why sitting for meditation / prayer is so valuable. Every sit, every pause adds to our ability to tap into that greater power than ourselves and to let that power do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Once I was sitting in a bar and a woman sat next to me and ordered a drink. Kind of unusual but it happened from time to time. After a bit we started talking. Just light bar talk and some laughing. At some point she made a comment - not mean, friendly.
I felt an immediate defensiveness coming on. I started to react with the Michael manifesto filtered through Jack Daniels when I had an odd thought - it caused a pause between my hearing what she said and the reaction welling up inside me. The thought was "maybe she isn't attacking you but speaking from what she learned". It was as if something greater than me stopped me and said "there is another way to look at this". So I laughed and made a joke. We had a great time. I looked at the situation differently.
That small seemingly insignificant moment stuck with me. I could have went with my first defensive reaction and maybe caused hurt feelings, embarrassed myself, or just ruined an otherwise pretty good moment and when I talked about my reasoning later, I might have gotten some agreement, some sympathy.
The reality could have simply been it wasn't what I initially thought. It just had enough data points that it felt familiar and triggered something in me. And it was my reaction, the trigger, that the pause was responding to.
I am sure we all have those moments. Maybe we don't think of them like that because it seemed to happen so fast. But think of them and acknowledge them. Share with someone else about one or two of them just to anchor the lesson.
Take time today to pause. To sit with yourself, sit with God, Higher Power. Practice pausing so pausing is a part of your toolkit. It works.
Amen!
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