Soul Nudges #49 Selah

An intentional pause

A few years ago, my wife started a coffee business and decided to call it “Selah Coffee”. As part of her branding, selah meant “an intentional pause”. She’s built it around that moment when your coffee’s aromas and tastes make you want to pause; that moment when having a fresh coffee can help you just “pause” and “be”; that selah moment.

Selah is a Hebrew word that’s been penned in the Bible 74 times. It is also specifically used in Psalms and Habakkuk as a liturgical marker. Literally, selah is translated to mean “suspension of music” or “pause”. So, it’s the same as when you have to rest between musical notes or when reading a poem – where the rests and intervals create silent rhythms that contribute to the quality and flow of the performance. With music and words, having moments of stillness often creates something even better. Because if it wasn’t for the silence, there wouldn’t have been sound.

Figuratively, selah nearly has the same meaning – moments of stillness that enhance the meaning of life. Those moments that we pause, that we contemplate, that we just are; those are the moments when we create meaning and substance. And that is really what life is about. Let this selah be a metaphor for you and me to come to an intentional pause, wherever we are.

Stillness

Actor, producer and well-known narrator Morgan Freeman recently said:

“Learning how to be still … to really be still and let life happen, that stillness becomes a radiance, a powerful lesson on finding clarity in a restless world …”

Stillness, pauses, and moments of selah can give you clarity in a restless world. The process of spiritual discernment asks for selah – to stop what you are doing, pause, and surrender to stillness. Once we have this ritual structure to regularly pause with acute awareness, that’s when selah can help us create a life liturgy.

Back in 1654, Blaise Pascal already said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

This is what selah is about: to sit quietly for a moment.

Stillness becomes a powerful lesson on finding clarity in a restless world.
Morgan Freeman

End well, rest well, start well

And now, with the silly season beckoning and before December rushes in, I encourage everyone to take an intentional pause. I created the annual Christmas in November Leaders’ retreat to afford our mentors some structured space at the end of the year. This retreat not only provides moments of selah to make sure those who join us can end the year well, but it also provides them with the opportunity to rest properly and be intentional in their approach to the new year.

This deliberate action to go quiet, slow down, and contemplate applies to us all. We don’t have to wait until Christmas to take a break. We can’t just start slowing down in November I know this. But we can give ourselves moments, to find clarity, and come December, we can be more present and enjoy a much deeper rest wherever we are. Selah is when we can create space for ourselves to think about the past year and pause on what has happened so far, before looking at what lies ahead.

To take a day in November, to go slower and contemplate my year in a structured way, has become one of my better habits. It’s become an important rhythm (liturgy) in my own life. It has also become the first step towards taking a proper break. In fact, I have just realised I’m changing my diary entry to “selah”. It doesn’t mean slowing down in November, because that is not realistic, it means slowing down deliberately for one day or a few hours.

I’m reminding myself of the following:

Without intentional rests, there can be no music.
It is often the intentional pause that enhances the meaning of my life.
Selah can be a metaphor for taking an intentional pause in a specific area of your life.
It is especially this time of the year that we need to be deliberate about this.

REFLECT

Take a few moments to reflect on your life and commitments at the moment – where do you need to press pause? Think about your life roles or themes and identify one area that needs selah.

RESPOND

Look at your diary for the rest of the year. Enter selah into it and take half a day or a day for yourself. Or choose a weekly slot where you write selah – a pause for yourself. Or, if applicable, join my Christmas in November Retreat.

Try this:

Next time, when you’re having coffee (or tea), whether it’s a takeaway, at home, at a coffee shop, even in the office, take your time, smell your drink, feel the cup in your hands, see the steam rise, when you sip it, taste it, and feel the warmth of the liquid. Pause … and be in that moment, because that is your selah.

Selah!