Christmas break is suppose to be a great opportunity to "pause". Activities and school and you name it comes to a hault, and everything around us seems to force us to a rest. However like typical humans, many of us struggle with committing to the empty schedule and after shopping and holiday events, we find ourselves back in January to do it all over again!
You know who knew when to take a break? Jesus. I'm not even talking Sabbath here...although he had that down too. Jesus knew when to be quiet, when to be slow to speak, when to "pause".
My favorite place to point this out is in John 8. Yep, the story of the woman caught in adultery. When they bring the woman to him to see what he will do to her, he leans down and begins to write something in the dirt. We can all speculate what it is he was writing, but to me it really doesn't matter. I just love the picture of my Jesus clearly pausing and being slow to speak. He was no fool to what was going on, and he could've snapped back with some quick comment highlighting their hypocrisy in a hateful way, but he didn't. He took a minute (not once but twice in this story if you go check the scripture) and then gave a perfect response that ushered conviction instead of anger, empathy instead of death sentence.
I don't know about you, but I think the whole world should take note! May you find a place in your hour, in your day, in your holiday, in your hard conversations to model a Jesus-like pause.
