The Power of the Pause (or I am not busy, busy, busy)

Have you ever noticed how often the answer to 

"How are you?"

or

"What are you up to?"

is 

"busy, busy, busy"?

Listen for it.

You probably won't have to listen long.

Maybe you will even hear yourself say it.

And maybe the speaker truly is busy.

 I have noticed that when I can't honestly say how busy I have been,

I feel bad - 

isn't that odd?

Why is busy-ness the accepted and expected norm?

At the beginning of December,

we celebrated 6 months in Oregon.
How time has sped by!

Starting over is always difficult for me.

At the beginning it is busy,

it is challenging in a fun way,

there is a house to set up,

there are new stores to learn,

there are new routines to establish,

there is just adventure in the newness of it all

...

but once we are settled,

it is quiet ... very quiet.

I have to find the people who need my ministry.

I may have to invent a new ministry.

I have to find a place in a new church.

I have to establish a new "normal."

And until those connections are made,

it is quiet.

Enter "the powerful 'pause'"

It is not bad to be quiet.

It is not bad to be still.

It is not bad to slow down.

It is not bad to be challenged in new ways.

I have thought much about the times God says to "Be Still" or to "Consider."

Though I often want to complain about the quiet,

God has used that quiet over and over and over again in the past 6 months.

I have been given a gift.

In the quiet,

I have found women online who have challenged me ...

in Bible memory,

in Bible study, 

in witness.

In the quiet,
my dependence on God deepens,
my soul searches harder for truths in my quiet time,
Scriptures stand out in new ways because my needs are more clear.

In the quiet,

I have had more time with my husband each week.

More time to read with each other.

More time to truly listen to each other.
More time for dates and walks.

In the quiet,

I have had to look harder for the outreach

resulting in more focus on the lost around ME

instead of just the ministries already established by my church.
The "pause" led to the tract bags to give out around town.