selah, or I need a break

I’ve been having a hard time deciding what to write for the past couple of days, and I thought that perhaps it was from lack of thought or stimulation, but this morning I’ve concluded that it’s the opposite: too much thinking and too much stimulation. Beside my chair I’ve got:

• Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster
• Swear to God by Scott Hahn
• Poems and Prose by Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Crafted Prayer and another book by Graham Cooke
• Bread in the Wilderness by Thomas Merton
• two books by Creflo Dollar

and these are just the ones I can see (there are at least 5 more in the basket underneath). When I sit in my recliner, looking at my shelves, I can see a host of books I have yet to read: Andrew Murray, Joyce Meyer, Bill Johnson, C.S. Lewis, a biography of Pope John Paul II, and the list goes on.

Similarly, I’ve got both a written and mental list of things I want to write about here, some requiring research (like “how did Lot end up in a cave fathering his own grandchildren?”) and others that just require the time to write. And then there’s the growing list of posts to catch up on in my Bloglines account, some of which will undoubtedly prompt either a comment on their blog or a post on mine.

I need to stop before I get totally overwhelmed…

Interestingly, the word that keeps coming to mind (and has for several days), is selah–a word that occurs mostly in the Psalms and is translated by the Amplified as “pause and calmly think of that” (see Psalm 3:2 for an example).

Some scholars suggest that selah was inserted by the writer to signal that the preceding idea should be pondered or meditated on. In other words, don’t be so eager to rush on to the next idea. Stop, meditate, consider.

I’d like to say that my hurry, flurry, and confusion is the result of some sort of external force, but I can’t really find anyone or anything to pin it on. I do know that teaching British literature this summer has me moving at a frenetic pace through poetry, a play, and three novels; I’m loving the material, but there’s not much time to pause, let alone “calmly think of that.” But even if this particular instance of confusion is linked to my whirlwind tour of 200+ years of literature, it’s still a part of me and I tend to experience it even in the more slowly paced fall and spring semesters.

I think, too, of my DVR, a wonderful tool that allows us to watch TV when it’s convenient and not when the show is on. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of using a Tivo or DVR, one of the benefits is that you can fast-forward through commercials. This is definitely a time-saver, but I’ve concluded that it comes at a price. Our minds, incredible creations that they are, try to process everything coming in. So, as those commercials zoom by at hyper speed, my brain is trying to make sense of the images and words that flash on the screen. Thus, even though I’m skipping them, I’m not. At some level, I’m recognizing that there’s another commercial for Nationwide, or thinking “wait, that looks like an ad for an upcoming show on Animal Planet that Isaac wanted to watch.” I’m beginning to see that there’s some value in letting the commercials play at regular speed and getting up for a short break (or simply leaning back and closing my eyes for a moment).

I’m also mindful of Psalm 131, especially verse 2:

But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

It wasn’t until we had babies that I understood this image: an infant that nurses isn’t often “stilled and quieted” with his mother; he constantly roots around, trying to find the breast. It seems that only when he goes to sleep is he still in your arms. The weaned child is calm and rests even when awake. I think of Anna and Isaac (5 and 7), who still come to see me as soon as they wake in the morning. I can hold one of them in my arms and on my lap and simply be still, enjoying the closeness. It’s one of the greatest pleasures I know, and I suspect that God feels the same when we are simply with Him, quiet.

Selah.

Pause.

And calmly think of that.

Tagged as: books, books, calm, distractions, quiet, selah, still, TV