Editorial June 12, 1978 Issue

The role of pausing

Geoffrey J. Barratt

In speech, in music, a pause can be significant. It can be a moment to assimilate what's gone on before. Or to prepare for what's coming. The pause can also have its place in resolving something through Christian Science.

On one occasion Mary Baker Eddy paused before entering a room in which was to take place a challenging confrontation. Asked why she hesitated, she replied, "I was waiting for the Christ to go before me."^{ Julia Michael Johnston, Mary Baker Eddy: Her Mission and Triumph (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1974), p. 166;}

Impatience for a resolution to some irritant problem can sometimes lead us to tangling with the problem rather than to unraveling—discerning—its spiritual answer. We may need to stop anxiously pushing forward for a moment and stay in the same place to survey the scene. In a fast-shifting, competitive world it may seem hard to do this. But fewer mistakes would be made, and better decisions would be taken, if we understood better the role of pausing.

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