In my former life I taught 3rd grade by day and was involved in campus ministry at Western Michigan University by night.

Classroom – Eat
Campus – Sleep
Repeat.

It was great. I had the energy of a 20-something and the conviction that I was participating in important kingdom work. And I was.

Thirty miles on the I-94 corridor bridged the two five days a week. It was my adult time (if you consider a 20-something an adult) between the 8 year olds and the 18 year olds. With the three others in my carpool we debriefed and solved the world’s problems during that daily commute. It fed my extrovert nature and helped on the financial end.

As my third year of teaching began, I sensed the need to drop the carpool. Something (someone) whispered, Sue your biggest need is 30 minutes of quiet. No conversation, no radio, no cassettes, just quiet. That was new. I listened.

Some days I used that quiet to pray; other days to review scripture; sometimes I just looked at the trees; and some days I did nothing but drive. It was good — I gave myself permission to pause.

Advent, a time of anticipation; Christmas is coming, and a permission to pause.

How will I spend these days? Like my first two years of teaching robotically moving from one thing to the next or like my third year giving myself permission to pause.

The angel’s message to the shepherds was “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:14 (bolding mine)

As I remember Advents past, this rebukes and challenges. As a child of God, peace is mine. The question remains, how do I experience that which is already mine?

By giving myself permission to pause.

This Advent season, I’m propping my day with two pauses:

My morning pause: With my steaming cup of coffee, I’m taking time to sit and enjoy the beauty of December. I’m reviewing my trust journal; I’m reading a piece of the Christmas story. This pause lends perspective, wisdom, and peace.

My evening pause: This time my mug holds decaf tea or sometimes just plain hot water. I’m often enjoying a favorite Christmas novel.

My Echoes of Grace pause:  Echoes will be alive during Advent with an almost new post each Thursday. I’m learning I often hear from God best by remembering and reviewing his words to me in the past. So I’m bringing back and updating previous Advent posts. I hope you too will hear from God as you read and ponder the thoughts on Echoes.

This Advent, what would giving yourself permission to pause look like?
How might it change your enjoyment of the Christmas season?

Advent is a season pregnant with hope and expectancy, weeks of preparation for contemplating and then receiving the miracle of Jesus’ birth. Advent welcomes the incarnation into every home of those who celebrate it, but along with it there is the tension about the choices we must make. Will busyness define how we wait for Jesus to come? Or will quiet contemplation be our sweet surrender while we wait? Similarly, Sabbath asks not, “What will you give up for him?’ but “How will you wait for him to come?”  Shelly Miller, Rhythms of Rest.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6

 

Originally published December 1, 2016, “…And On Earth Peace”.
Copyright, December 2020, Sue Tell