Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during February 2022]

As I prepare to put fingers to keyboard for this week’s reflection, I am presented with an empty screen, a blank page waiting for the words that will, hopefully bring a message of challenge or encouragement to those who read them. But the page is not entirely blank; there is a placeholder for the title and any references, and the standard header and footer are visible.

Could it be that the empty page reminds us of our spiritual life? God has his place but our relationship with him is limited to a formal salutation at the start and end of the day and there’s nothing in between. There are numerous worthwhile resources available to help make these times more meaningful but, of themselves, they are insufficient. We need to try to follow the examples of Abraham and Moses who talked ‘with’ God rather than just ‘to’ him. Devout Muslims are expected to pray five times each day – surely we cannot be satisfied with less than that.

It is said that nature abhors a vacuum and always rushes to fill it. So it is when an author is faced with a blank page; there is often a scramble to get one’s thoughts written down before they get forgotten. Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth century writer, once noted “That which is written without effort is read without pleasure”. Effort is necessary, certainly, but so is inspiration; without inspiration the effort loses much of its effectiveness.

Editors have the advantage of working with existing texts whereas authors have the challenge of assembling their own raw material. God is the author of the Bible but it has come to us through very considerable effort on the part of translators and editors; reading it should not be a chore but rather something that gives us pleasure.

What else can we learn from a blank page? If we can resist the temptation to despoil it, an empty page can encourage us to pause, to be still and listen to what God might say when his message is not subject to the limitations of language. Like Elijah, we may be in awe of the wonders of creation or preoccupied with problems but it was through the still small voice that God spoke to him. It is with good reason that such periods are called a “quiet time”.

Just a closer walk with Thee, Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee, Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.^[1]

Why not pause, and think about that?

[1]: Anon, from Hymnary.org.

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