You step into the shower and a solution to that problem suddenly pops into your head.
You’re drifting off to sleep at night and suddenly you have an insight.
You find yourself stuck in traffic only to realize you worked out an issue while staring out the window.
We’ve all had moments like these when our brains take us by surprise. What’s going on?
It turns out when we take a break from activity it allows us to do some pretty important work. Consider this quote:
Interrupting work with a relaxing activity lets the mind turn inward, where it can subconsciously puzzle over subtle meanings and connections (the brain is incredibly busy when daydreaming). “That’s why so many insights happen during warm showers,” says Joydeep Bhattacharya, a psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London.–The Economist
We can all drift into a mode of believing that to do more we have to, well, do more. But sometimes it’s actually daring to do less that makes the difference. It’s the old saying about the fastest way to chop down a tree being to pause and sharpen your ax.
Even Jesus took breaks. At different places in the gospel we find Him napping, sitting by a well, heading off by Himself to pray and simply stepping away from the ebb and flow of life in other ways.
Of all the people in the world, it seems Jesus would have a to-do list that would absolutely require Him to be busy 24-7. But He wasn’t. And when He left this earth, there were still people who hadn’t been healed, miracles that hadn’t been done, folks who hadn’t even heard His name yet.
If Jesus can take a break, then we can too. Our lives aren’t about productivity. They’re about obedience. And obedience requires time to listen to the voice of the Master.
He slips a thought into our minds in the shower.
He whispers to us as we drift off the sleep.
He catches our hearts by surprise as we stare out the window in traffic.
When we take a break, we not only make room for our souls to breathe…we make room for the Lover of our Souls to breathe new life into us.
It can be five minutes.
Or whatever you have.
Even a deep breath after you finish reading this post.
What do you say? Should we try it?
Ready, set…don’t go.
–Holley Gerth
