That Breathless Pause

It’s in the white space between the verses.  If it were captured on video, a la NFL Films, they’d replay it in slow motion with a tense musical score leading up to the climactic moment.  It often takes place in a matter of seconds and is hardly ever discussed. But we’ve all read about it. And chances are, we’ve lived it on some level.

The “it” that I’m referring to is that split-second gap between motion and miracle. When the world for just a second goes quiet and you’re breathless with anticipation.

It’s that Breathless Pause, where you’re waiting, anticipating something amazing.

The Breathless Pause showed up when the Israelites were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.  “Don’t be afraid!” Moses said. “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.”  So still they stood. And the rest is history.

You find the Breathless Pause as a smooth stone sails through the air from a young shepherd’s slingshot toward a giant’s fat head. You find it again as a guilty king – not once, but twice – checks on the results of his dastardly decisions, only to find a Fourth Man walking in the fiery furnace and the lions snoozing in Daniel’s den.

You find the Breathless Pause as Peter, for reasons we still don’t understand, steps out of a perfectly good boat in a storm, to walk toward Jesus on water. You find it again when that same Peter looks at a beggar and declares, “silver and gold I have none, but what I have I will give to you – in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk!”

You find the Breathless Pause in the seconds after a grave was uncovered and its chief resident was ordered, “Lazarus, come forth!” You find it again when a risen Christ told His followers to go forth and suddenly, inexplicably, ascended out of sight into heaven.

But not every Breathless Pause happens instantaneously.  And that could be a problem if you’re expecting immediate results. The same Moses who crossed the sea on dry land spent the next 40 years in a desert and died with the Promised Land in his eyes, but not under his feet.

The same David who dropped a giant in seconds had to wait months-to-years for his anointing as king to be realized. And more than once he hollered, “How Long, O Lord?”

The same Daniel who snoozed with the lions had to endure three different pagan kings and a lifetime of spiritually grinding it out day after day in captivity.

The same Peter who lived through the resurrection of Jesus and the center stage of Pentecost lived long enough to see the early church in Jerusalem scattered to the winds and his own leadership take second fiddle to Paul’s.

The same Lazarus who miraculously emerged from his own grave eventually got sick and died again. Ditto for those disciples who witnessed the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and waited every day for His return, only to die never seeing it.

The point – If you find yourself living in that Breathless Pause of anticipation and the next day you’re still holding your breath, it’s OK to exhale. Just because you aren’t seeing it happen instantly doesn’t mean the Lord is uninterested or unable.

Delays are not rejections.

Disappointments are not defeats.

Be ready for God’s next “suddenly” – it could happen today in ways you least expect it.  But while you’re at it, train for the long haul and the “mean time.” God is just as involved in your suffocating waiting as He is in your Breathless Pause. And it’s no less miraculous if it takes 9 months or 90 years than it is if the deed is done in seconds.

Breathe. Exhale. Trust. Believe.  Suddenly or not, the miracle is coming.

Tagged as: Anticipation, Faith, Patience, Waiting