Finding Purpose in the Pause
I feel like the pause button has been hit on our lives.
We were going along, life as “normal,” kicking off a new year, a new decade, new year’s resolutions still fresh on everyone’s minds then all of a sudden things ceased.
There wasn’t preparation, no warning. All of a sudden our world changed and everything paused.
I feel like the month of April 2020 looks like this ⏸️ A giant pause button!
Usually when I hit pause on a movie, I do it because I need a refill on my drink or have to use the restroom (just being real!).
But there’s a reason I hit the pause button. I don’t hit it just for the fun of it. I hit it because I don’t want to miss anything in the movie but I also need to do something before the show can go on.
What if we look at life like that right now?
Maybe you didn’t willingly hit the pause button, but it’s been hit nonetheless. And now it’s time for us to determine what we need to do during this time.
Let’s just take the two reasons I pause a movie: Get a drink or use the restroom (sorry again!).
Does your cup need to be filled up? Is this time for you to slow down, reset, refresh?
Do you need to “relieve yourself” from something unnecessary? Are you holding onto things – expectations, schedules, even worries – that aren’t serving you or that are weighing you down?
Those are just a couple of examples. But the thing is, we can make use of this pause and spent our time finding purpose in it.
The pause button has been hit for a purpose. Now we just have to determine what that is for our life. #findingpurpose #covid19 Click To Tweet
The pause button has been hit for a purpose. Now we just have to determine what that is for our life.
One thing is certain, we can hold onto hope. We can fill this pause with hope.
According to Dictionary.com, hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. It also means to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence, to feel that something desired may happen.
Back to that movie I was watching and decided to pause. As I’m refilling my water, I’m looking forward to finding out what will happen next in the moving. Of course, my desire is for a happily-ever-after ending.
1 Peter 1:3-7 (NIV) is full of encouragement for this time:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. “
Let’s look at a couple of points here more closely:
In verse 3: “he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” Hope is alive and active because of the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. We can have hope!
In verse 6: “though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” He never promised life without suffering and trials. In the scheme of life, this is our little while.
In verse 7: “may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Good will come of this. God will be glorified.
There is purpose in the pause, and God wants to show us. Will you spend your time finding purpose in this pause?
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