The Power of the Pause

"While on the journey of waiting and hoping for what is to come, don’t forget to LIVE right where you’re at, basking in the present."- Paige Adams

I recently went on a family vacation to Banff, Alberta, Canada. On our first day there we went on a hike up to a teahouse named, The Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse. This hike was said to be “moderate” and roughly 4.5 miles in total. I felt like I could totally do this because this is the distance that I typically try to walk back home each day. Well….. your girl was WRONG. I could tell within the first 20 minutes of this hike that it was not “moderate”  and that it would be much harder than I anticipated. About 45 minutes in I was wondering who on earth rated these hikes because it was definitely NOT “moderate”. Welcome to the internal dialogue of Paige Adam’s brain. The hike was on the side of a mountain, extremely high in elevation, and was full of rocks and inclines. This Texas girl knew she was in for a ride. And not one of those rides in a cute convertible with the top down and your hair blowing in the wind. 

As I traveled up this mountain I found myself thinking things like “I just want to get to the end”, “I just want this to be over already”. I wanted to expedite the process of getting to the summit because goodness gracious it was hard. 

The girls I was with stopped pretty regularly throughout the hike to catch our breath and take a pause. In one regard I was thankful for this because it allowed me to catch my breath and regain energy for the next trek and on the other side I just wanted to get there as fast as possible and be done already. 

As I stopped to take one of our breaks and pauses and the thoughts of “I just want to get to the end” and “I just want this to be over already.” raced through my mind, I felt paused by the Lord in that moment. 

He reminded me in that moment that this is often how I and we can go through life sometimes and our processes to the goals and promises we want to get to. We want it to be done already, we want to be at the finish line, and that with this mindset we miss a lot of beautiful things along the way. 

I felt challenged in that moment to think about all of the positives in pausing as we went up the mountain to catch our breath and rest, and it taking longer than maybe I would have liked.

Here are some of the beauties I found when pausing on my journey up the mountain and not just racing through it and trying to rush through it that apply to our daily life and processes with the Lord as well-

• I enjoyed myself so much more. When we paused and I was able to catch my breath I enjoyed my journey up this mountain so much more. This goes for life too. Let’s not get so caught up in getting to our end goal and finish line that we forget to enjoy ourselves along the way. Will you get there as fast? Probably not. But when you get to the end you’ll be able to say you enjoyed the ride instead of being burned out.

• I was able to see how far I’d gone. Each and every time I paused up the mountain I was able to see just how far I had come. This was something that made me proud of myself. So often in life we forget to pause and look how far we’ve come and celebrate it. The pauses in life allow us to do this and give us the momentum to keep going that comes from celebrating ourselves. 

  

• The VIEWS. Each and every time we paused I was able to see views of a lifetime that came from higher elevation. If I wouldn’t have paused I would’ve missed these views that were truly the best part. What views could you be missing in life because you haven’t taken the time to pause? 

I’m not sure what process you find yourself in today. Maybe it’s the process of waiting on God to give you a child, or waiting on God to give you your dream job, maybe you’re waiting on God to deliver your husband or wife to you. Whatever it is, just don’t forget to pause and enjoy where you’re currently at, see how far you’ve come, and bask in the beauty that is CURRENTLY around you. 

While on the journey of waiting and hoping for what is to come, don’t forget to LIVE right where you’re at, basking in the present. 

Allow the power of the pause to re energize you and give you momentum to keep moving forward to all your dreams, desires being fulfilled, and your next.

We’re all in this together. 

With so much love, 

Paige Adams