Thursday, June 25, 2015

Pausing for Reflection

You may have tried this at a job sometime back in the day and met with a supervisor who thought there should be no pause in your day other than those mandated by the company. Thoughts or reflections are often not valued by a company. Actions can be seen and measured, reported on charts and graphs, and analysed in meetings (ironically where any productive thinking usually stops). You may have run into the manager who claims that thinking is above your pay grade, job, or position, and means it too! I had that experience a few times. Of course, doing nothing but thinking and reflecting doesn't help a company either. Action must follow; whether it be the discarding of a boneheaded idea or putting into practice a great idea.

After Jesus went to John the Baptist to start His ministry, He didn't sit out in the wilderness and think for 3 years. Our Lord was a man of action and reflection. Pausing for reflection implies that we have action on either side of the pause. Prayer is an action. Good deeds done in love are actions. Worship of God is an action. We have many avenues of action, and good reason for the pauses to reflect and think. Prayer is also a reflection. We work best with both the action and the reflection.

In our ministry, reflection in prayer is a good start to any action, for not all of our intended actions are godly and good. Those boneheaded ideas still creep up from time to time. Many times have I wished a bit more prayerful reflection had preceded one of my boneheaded actions! Praise God for grace and forgiveness.

Have a reflective and action-filled day in Christ!

Bucky

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