Originally published Thursday, 21 March 2013.
A few years ago I had a few big dreams rumbling through my thoughts on a daily basis.
I’m a big believer in dreams and great purposes from God. But I also know that our God is a God of action and movement. Stuff has never just happened for me. So I took the steps appropriate to help those dreams come to be.
But, life.
You understand those words too, right?
But life steps in and has the tendency to sweep those dreams to the place of “later”, or “one day” and “not now”.
The past few months I’ve wrestled with my dreams and the opportunities I have right now. My dreams and my opportunities have seemed to line up.
But I recently had to walk through some soul-searching and ask myself a few hard questions.
I was presented with two amazing opportunities at once. Both required a new rhythm to life for this mom who has been at home with babies for the past ten years. One opportunity looked a lot like my dreams and the other looked like an exciting twist to life.
Knowing that there would be no possible way to do both at once, I had to decide.
My decision has involved a lot of growth opportunity… some of which I want to share with you today. Because when facing a hard decision, it seems like a very common God-question to ask is, “How do I know what God wants me to do?”
And the truth is, I’m not sure we will ever 100% know. But perhaps the greater lesson is knowing when God doesn’t want us to do something.
Success is defined differently in each of our eyes. But I’ve seen a beautiful rhythm to life for those who have learned to understand the power of pressing pause.
Pressing pause isn’t wasting time. Pressing pause isn’t putting dreams away. And pressing pause isn’t running from the great purpose God has for us.
Through this process, I've understood its time to press pause on the things I once dreamed of.
Not a fun lesson. Not one many like to understand. But one we must all discover if we truly want to embrace the process of growth.
Through learning to press pause on certain things of life I have understood a powerful truth:
Pressing pause leads us to the season of sowing.
Jesus frequently taught on the principles of sowing and reaping [ex: John 4:37.] We are such a must-have-it-now culture; I think we like to focus on the reaping portion more than sowing.
But the season of sowing is powerful. And most likely this season is a lot longer than we’d ever think.
Sowing brings a gentle, calm rhythm to the daily chaos of life. It teaches us that every step is important, vital and has potential. Sowing brings us a spirit of patience and peace.
Sowing allows us to see that just because we are not who we want to be doesn’t mean we will never get there.
Pressing Pause. Learning to sow. Embracing this season.
I haven’t found the perfect rhythm to this difficult beat.
But as we learn this sowing-rhythm we are able to inhale the things we need and exhale the things we don’t. Our hearts and minds become more aware of the seeds we are planting each day.
"Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." -Ecclesiastes 11:6
May we understand the moments we must pause things to learn to sow well.
What does pressing pause look like for you? I'd love to hear... leave a comment and share your thoughts today.
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