Happy Birthday!

This week our country turns 250 years old... but don’t let that overshadow the fact that the Mid-Week Pause just turned a year old on June 18th. Happy Birthday Mid-Week Pause!  Here is to another 249 years of helping people slow down to PAUSE.

Jake and I usually alternate week to week. Thankfully, we only missed one week in the past year, due to me dropping the ball. I have been reflecting on writing these devotions for the last year. The rhythm of getting something out every week has been a good discipline for me. It forces me to pause and reflect on my life. It forces me to slow down and attempt to be present to what God is doing around me. I then try to share what I observe and experience with you.

Jake and I don’t have some master themed schedule. We simply share from our own lives. Over the past year, I hope you have begun to see that God meets us in our actual lives. On the mountain tops. In the valleys, and most often on the long flat road of our ordinary lives.

So, today, I invite you to PAUSE and reflect on the past year of your life. But before we begin, I invite you to take a few deep breaths.

Breathe in. Out. In. Out.

Pray. Holy Spirit, quiet my mind, body, and spirit as I take a moment to be present to your presence in my life.  

Reflect. Where has God felt the most present in the past year? Was it a mountain top season? A valley season? Or a flat road season?

Listen. Is God saying anything to you through that memory?

Reflect. Where has God felt the most distant in the past year?

Listen. Is God saying anything to you through that memory?

Reflect. How do you sense God revealing himself to you in your actual life this week?

We often idealize the spiritual journey, thinking it has to look totally different than our actual lives. But the truth is that God meets us right where we are in our actual lives. I pray you continue to pause each day to receive the love of God in your ordinary life.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. (Philippians 4:23)