Pausing to Praise

Our family just got back from vacation. It wasn't exactly the type of vacation that is restful and relaxing, but it provided some wonderful family memories we will hold on to for a long time. Every day was carefully planned to maximize the fun while still managing our children's capacities. Yes, we still had some tired meltdowns, but we did our best to manage the fun and rest. It involved lots of rides. That's what we carefully planned each day…what rides will we try to get to, who is tall enough to ride which ones, when we need to be where (with some flexibility for whatever our family needed in the moment). On one such ride, there must have been some mechanical issues or people who didn't know how to properly board and exit the ride because it kept pausing in the middle of the ride. Instead of our cars slowly continuing on through the music and animated scenes we were seeing, it would stop and we'd be stuck in front of the same animated scene with the same narration being repeated for us. This happened several times and as you can imagine it became incredibly frustrating.

Now, it only added ten minutes or so to the ride and didn't really set us back that much during the day, but those frequent stops really ruined the whole experience on that ride. It made me think after the fact, how often do we get to pause in the middle of something good in order to actually enjoy the moment? That could have been a moment to pause and be grateful for where we were and what we were getting to experience. Instead, our minds were consumed with what was coming next. So what if we saw the same little scene repeated in front of us for a couple minutes. Isn't the point not to rush through the fun but to actually enjoy it?

Our lives can be really chaotic as it is. The beginning of September kicks off the start of school, a busier ministry schedule at church, extracurricular activities and more. For many of us, we face never-ending demands on our time and attention and can easily forget to pause and praise God for what he's doing in the moment. The whole point in life isn't to rush on to the next thing, but to walk with God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes our life's purpose really well as it opens. "What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever."

God has sent us a savior precisely because his people are not capable of being good enough. In Jesus, we are supposed to rest in the knowledge that we walk with God in his grace. Maybe some of us need to be reminded of the importance of pausing to enjoy God and his blessings this season. In pausing, we praise the God who is always with us. 

Pastor Kendall Everett