A five-stone pause
David paused. He had been listening carefully to God as he prepared for this showdown with the feared warrior called Goliath. When King Saul offered David his personal armor, David quickly knew that restrictive, unfamiliar armor wasn’t part of his mission. He declined the king’s generous offer, took his sling, and found a brook (see I Samuel 17:38–50 ).
He paused long enough to pick up five smooth stones. As he stooped and put his hand into the brook, he could have chosen just one—after all, with the advantage of hindsight we know one stone was all he needed. And he didn’t just grab any handful. Perhaps he paused to carefully select exactly the right stones, five of them. The slingshot was a weapon he wielded with authority. He had proved it over the years by protecting his father’s sheep against lions and bears.
Anyone who has skipped stones at the edge of a lake knows the importance of carefully selecting each one. Size, shape, weight, flatness, all enter into the final decision. Is it too thick, too thin? Too heavy, too light? Is there an edge for your index finger? I like to think that David was equally choosy about the size, shape, and weight of his stones. He knew the criteria for a stone to fly a true course. So he paused long enough to make a careful selection. Then, and only then, did he run to meet Goliath.
Should we be any less selective prior to the many decisions we make during the day? Heading for an important meeting? Facing an unforeseen circumstance? Caught in a heated discussion?
What I like to call a five-stone pause is a specific retreat from the hustle of events in order to ask God’s guidance. To ask what He sees as our contribution to wherever we find ourselves. It’s listening for the exact attitude, words, approach, that will contribute to taking right steps, to acting on right ideas.
Divine Mind’s all-knowing kindly delivers us from the temptation to be responsible for coming up with every solution. Pausing may mean having the grace to give someone else the opportunity to offer a good idea. Pausing may mean being a better listener.
Symphonies are full of pregnant pauses, carefully intended silences, which prepare us for what comes next by providing space for us to listen expectantly. Pauses in conversations are opportunities to thoughtfully, prayerfully, consider where the discussion should flow.
A five-stone pause is a specific retreat from the hustle of events in order to ask God's guidance.
One time I was going to visit a friend. The extended drive provided wonderful opportunity to really think and pray about this relationship. I had been unhappy for some time with my end of some conversations with this friend. The yearning to put our friendship on a more solid basis was deep. As uncomfortable memories surfaced of words I had spoken in tones of arrogance and self-importance, what came to me was, “When you get there, just listen, be supportive, and keep your mouth shut.” Those very words.
This proved to be excellent advice, and I followed it faithfully. In the course of conversations and activities, when temptations arose for me to react in old ways—which they did!—I paused long enough to hear, “Keep your mouth shut, and be supportive.”
I did, and I found many opportunities to recognize and praise ongoing good, opportunities that would have been lost in the old pattern. And one by one, the old habits fell on the battlefield of my own thinking, until just being kind ceased to be an effort. The visit was extraordinarily happy and productive.
The prayer breaks during the drive, and the smooth-stone pauses during the visit, proved to be a way to reclaim kindness not only as my nature, but also as the substance of this friendship.
Listening for Mind's direction, we're receptive to inspired approaches, course adjustments, recognition of outgrown habits.
The whole episode was so transformative—there had been such a consistent yielding to the ever-present Christ—that I had to ask, So, did Jesus pause? If so, how? Perhaps his most obvious breaks were to pray. We read in the Gospels of hours and nights spent in prayer. When he needed time away from the crowds, he retreated to gardens, mountains, even the wilderness. He retreated for prayer sometimes before and sometimes after healing multitudes. His smooth stones were conversations with his Father, God, that prepared him to go forward and face serious conditions in need of healing as well as the Pharisees—the Goliaths of his day, whose cherished traditions he was constantly challenging.
If the stones represent Jesus’ communing with God, then his slingshot delivery is represented by such radical healing statements as: Take up your bed and walk; Your faith has made you whole; Stretch forth your hand; Maid, arise; Go, and sin no more; Fear not; Lazarus, come forth. Those who heard him walked freely, stretched healthy limbs, rose up strong, went home pure and sinless, found spiritual courage, and emerged from the tomb.
The greater our desire to stay close to God, the more likely we are to pause. Listening for Mind’s direction, we’re receptive to inspired approaches, course adjustments, recognition of outgrown habits. Mary Baker Eddy explains the purpose of this mental halt: “Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause,—wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 323 ).
