They always say that it’s the simple things in life that give us the most pleasure. For me and my husband, it’s finding ‘our bench’ as we have affectionately named the seat of our choosing that helps us to pause for a moment whilst we are out and about on our travels. Choosing to rest or just decide to people-watch for a while is where we give ourselves permission to pause. And it’s in this forced stillness where we connect with each other the most. In a world that keeps telling us we need to be more active, so we can do more, which helps us to be more, deems sitting on a bench a stagnation status that affects the momentum of our day. And yet, the Bible teaches us that quiet contemplation is just what our souls need to experience God more deeply. 

We have just come back from an amazing trip in Europe and everywhere we visited we somehow found the perfect bench to sit for a while and watch the world go by. Whether it was in the English countryside or along the Amalfi Coast in Italy, we decided to give ourselves permission to pause, to dial down the pace of the day and refresh our souls. 

Believe it or not, there are many places in the Bible where God has provided ‘our bench’ for all who want to sit and reflect. A direction that never captures the attention of busyness and hustle. Look at the Psalms for example, frequently we find the word Selah perfectly placed right between verses giving youself permission to pause. An invitation from our Creator to settle for a moment and learn to rest in Him. 

These Selah moments are the benchmark that gauge how our relationship is with the Father, as we give reflect and consider His ways. 

‘Be still and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!

The Lord of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah  

Psalm 46:10-11

Selah is hitting the pause button; it’s giving yourself permission to pause and sit awhile, taking God up on His invitation to meditate on Him. Like myself and my husband, the more we find the time to seek out ‘our bench’ the more we connect with God and each other.

The danger of not giving yourself permission to pause, to Selah with God, is that you end up doing things for God rather than things with God. And before we know it, we have no time to find ‘our bench’ with God in the Scriptures because giving ourselves permission to pause feels like an inconvenience, a disruption to our day to day activities. I mean, who has time to Selah when we have SO much to do, right? 

However, if you don’t give yourself permission to pause your faith maybe at a disadvantage. I don’t mean we lose our Salvation, but to be hooked into the lie that we have no time to pause means we’re not tapping into all God has to offer us. 

As Evelyn Underhill so wisely stated, “We are often urged to think of the spiritual life as a personal adventure, a ceaseless hustle forward; with all its meaning condensed in the “perfection” of the last stage. But through progress, or rather growth, is truly in it, such growth in so far as it is real can only arise from, and be conditioned by, a far more fundamental relation – the growing soul’s abidingness in God.” 

I like that. “Abidingness in God” It offers us the permission our weary souls are searching for in the busyness of life. I’m wondering if Evelyn Underhill found her own ‘our bench’ with God to write with such depth and poetry. 

So, the next time you’re out and about, find a bench and give yourself permission to pause, to reflect, to Selah. Learn to abide in God and watch your faith not only deepen but flourish! 

Wendy xo 

How do you give yourself permission to pause?