There are times when my biggest challenge is just ‘getting started.’ This is when my mother used to say, “your get up and go done got up and went.” So I stare blankly at my computer, my brain cocooned in layers of inertia. It usually happens in the middle of a major project, or as I’m nearing the end of a long, drawn out and rather thankless task.

Everyone starts somewhere … even God

My theology accepts that “In the beginning,” when time started, “God created …” And I’m okay with him having wrapped it up in six days (whether or not these were twenty-four hour days or ‘thousand year days’ or something else altogether has never been important enough for me to start an argument; sorry). My question is, whenever it was and however long it took, did God have any trouble getting started? You know, “in the beginning?” Well, there was that thing with Lucifer … but anything else we may not know about?

The magnificent pause

As I ponder this incredible event we call “creation,” I do find it interesting that, “he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Gen.2:2). God “paused.” The idea of God taking a break has a refreshing appeal to me. That he took time to admire what he had done and congratulated himself by saying it had all turned out to be “very good” just seems like the right thing. We should all do it once in a while.

A monumental mess

However, what God starts out to do, as happens to us all sometimes, is not going well. Mankind has become so egregious in behavior toward God and one another that “the Lord was sorry that he had made man…grieved in his heart…” and decided to “blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land (along with everything else in sight) for I am sorry that I have made them” (Gen. 6:5-7).

I’ve had days something on this order, when I was sorry I ever started on whatever it was I was working on (like this blog, for example). Sorry I had to face all those people again on Sunday. Sorry I was in the middle of something I couldn’t just stop and walk away from. Sorry things didn’t go my way. Sorry my creative juices were gone. Sorry “my get up and go done got up and went.”

Why God paused

Perhaps this is why God “paused.” He had so thoroughly invested in the creative process he needed a timeout in order to refresh. So, eventually feeling disheartened at the outcome, and thinking about destroying it all, thankfully, God paused. He took a creative breather, time to observe Noah and his family, time to listen to the birds, the animals, to gaze at the full panoply of his creation. It was time well spent, for in doing so he decided everything wasn’t a total loss after all.

Requiring a ‘pause’ when arriving at a critical ‘end of things,’ is something I attribute to my having been made in God’s image. I need regular timeouts, and an extra special one now and then in order to reflect, to be able to say, “Would you look at that? That was very good, if I do say so myself.”

The Creator knows I need a fresh month every thirty days or so, and a New Year once in a while. We all do. It keeps us from getting so depressed over what hasn’t worked out the way we thought it should have, that we want to throw in the towel. Or worse.

Spotting our Noahs

These built in “pauses” give us a chance to spot the “Noahs” in our work or our personal life, to realize that they have value and meaning and purpose, not only in our eyes, but in the eyes of God as well. We need them in order to get started again. Times to refresh, to rejoice, to recall the blessedness of our Callings, to give thanks for family and friends, and for the unexpected joy of serving total strangers.

Are you giving up … or getting started?

If you feel like giving up on life, don’t do it. Just give yourself time to “pause,” to rest, to trust again, to see what is good, to let frustrations go out with the tide. With God’s empowerment, you can start again in the right direction.

Getting started means you will be more creative this month than last, deepen relationships with a trusted friend, keep a grateful eye out for God’s blessings, and make every day a day for leaving the Light on for someone else you know who’s having trouble getting started.

This is your time for fresh “perspective.” Let me know how it’s going for you.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will

reap a harvest if we do not give up” ~ Apostle Paul (Gal. 6:9)

 

Have you found “getting (re)started” difficult for you? What do you do that gets you going? Has a “creative pause” ever worked for you? What did it look like?

What “perspective” can you bring that will help the rest of us. Thanks for sharing.