Selah

Opening Prayer: Dear Lord, we thank you for the many ways you are with us. We see the cloudy day, and we are mindful of you as Creator. The cold air we feel reminds us of the One who set seasons in place. As our bodies take in air, we think of you present in us. You created us to be able to do these things and more. Strengthen us not to take them for granted. Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 103:1-2 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits.”

Devotion: The United Methodist Church (UMC) has chosen A Season of Selahs for its 2020 Lenten theme. Its website offers that the word Selah, used in the Psalms and Habakkuk, has an unclear English translation. It appears the word Selah functions as a pause and suggests an “exhaling or resting from routine activities.” While the UMC focuses the term on choosing and walking in bright paths, I want to choose Selah’s function of signaling and requiring pause.
I honestly often think of pauses as negative space. I want to be doing something, saying something, or going somewhere, sometimes, all at the same time. I learned my chosen lifestyle of working multiple jobs from parents who often always took extra shifts, worked overtime, or had multiple jobs. I remember my dad and I talking on the phone once, and he said to me, “You are always tired. When are you going to start working just one job?” I replied, “Dad, just as soon as you do, call me up, and I will quit a couple of jobs.” We laughed, and he admitted that I had come into that heritage honestly.
This season of telecommuting has given many of us more time than we have ever had at home. Some will probably choose to work more than they usually do at their offices because work is in your home, and you have opportunities to work consistently throughout the day, the evening, and the night. I want to encourage
you not to do that; to find ways to set a workday, to close your computer, laptop, or tablet, and to practice Selah, pause, exhale.
Practicing Selah doesn’t have to happen at home or the end of a workday. We are healthier when we find ways to pause throughout the day and evening. A former blessing was that commercials used to force most people to get up out of their chairs and to go into another room. I say “used to” because I know of many you who use that time to surf to another channel that doesn’t have a commercial. That is becoming a little more difficult, now that ad campaigns seem to be scheduling their commercials on multiple channels at the same time. The practice of getting up and moving around the room or into other parts of your home is still available.
No matter what your circumstance, I invite you to experience this time as a time to practice Selah. Teach yourself to breathe deeply, to exhale, to pause. Take clues from yoga, Eastern Meditation traditions, Bahai, and mindfulness.
• Breathe deeply
• Focus on the gemul the word translated as benefits, compensation, recompense, of dealings. How has being in a relationship with God benefitted you?
• Exhale
These moments that you take to cognitively focus your heart, mind, spirit, and body on the goodness of God may be just the Selah you need to be able to get back to the task at hand, to stir your creative juices, to re-center you in the rock that is Jesus. Write on a piece of paper if you can a list of benefits you have access to as God’s child. Write down the compensation you have access to as God’s child. Use these to focus your thoughts. Continue to add to this list throughout the day and evening. Please share what you came up with as you comment on this blog. *Hint: If you need help starting your list, read the rest of Psalm 103. Breathe, focus, exhale...Selah.

Closing Prayer: Lord, we have accultured ourselves to be active. It is not going to be easy to slow down and to enjoy Selah. We need your help. Thank you that you are with us, that you provide your rod and staff to comfort us (Ps. 23:4). Selah. Amen.