Coke has popular claim on the phrase, “The pause that refreshes,” but it is a good idea to recall that it was God that first exercised the wisdom captured in that phrase. Genesis 2:3 says: “So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” There are two aspects of the wisdom of that verse that I want to point to. First, God did pause, or sabbath, from the work of creation. The implication is that God stopped working, stepped back, and evaluated what God had done. God even pronounced judgment on the work that God had accomplished.Gen. 1:31 says, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”
The second thing I would mention is that God blessed the seventh day. The word to bless contains the sense of pregnancy or creativity. We often refer to a pregnancy as a blessed event. The pause that God took in the midst of the divine creation was a pause that was pregnant. When we sabbath, contained within that pause is the power to be creative and life producing.
Think about that in ministry and life itself. If we are continually at work, we soon drain ourselves of the capacity to be creative. If we would discipline ourselves to take regular pauses, times to breathe in and to review what we are engaged in, we will be more alive and creative.
If you would set aside a few minutes each day and even a half day each month, in which you pulled apart and simply reflected on your life and work, the pregnant possibilities have an opportunity to present themselves. For example, if each day before you left the office, you would simply sit and reflect on where God has been present in your day, and at least once a month take a half-day away from the office and demands and open yourself to where God is leading you, you would discover a new energy and vitality to your work and life. Try it for six months and see.
