Exactly 90
years ago, a beverage company was searching for a catchy slogan to increase
sales of their product. At that time, the country was still recovering from the
ravages of World War I, and the economic outlook was grim. People were working
harder but earning less. Public morale was low, and so was hope for the future.
Copywriter Archie Lee, who worked at an advertising agency in St. Louis,
Missouri, came up with the slogan “the pause that refreshes,” and the rest is
history. Even though Black Friday plunged the nation into the Great Depression
only months after the ad campaign was launched, sales of the beverage doubled
because of its positive, uplifting message. That beverage was Coca-Cola; and
“the pause that refreshes” remains their most used and best-known slogan.
Even though
“the pause that refreshes” is only an advertising slogan, I’ll bet that its
message resonates with everyone in this room. Pausing in the midst of our busy
lives so that we can be refreshed is surely something that we all yearn for. After
the boss has dumped one more urgent project on our desk… after our child (or
our grandchild has called “Mommy, help me!” for the hundredth time that day… when
we have four things scheduled for Wednesday afternoon and only have time to do
two of them… don’t we all wish that we could just sit down, have a glass of
lemonade, and take a nap? Pausing to be refreshed is something that everyone
needs, even if we have convinced ourselves that we can’t take time out to do
it.
Even a
prophet as powerful as Elijah needed to be refreshed every now and then. I’ve
never paid a whole lot of attention to this little story of Elijah’s journey to
Mount Horeb (I Kings 19:1-8). After all, the stories that frame it are a lot
more interesting! The story that precedes it – Elijah’s triumph over the
priests of Baal (I Kings 18:16-40) – is exciting; and the story that follows it
– the Lord speaking to Elijah in a still, small voice (I Kings 19:9-18) – is
certainly thought-provoking. But a story of getting from here to there? Meh.
A closer
look, though, shows us the value of this little story. Elijah’s whole attitude
changed right in the middle of his trip! When he arrived at an oasis after only
a day’s journey, Elijah was ready to give up on life. “I can’t do this
anymore!” he told God. “Why can’t I just die?” and then he fell sound asleep. But
he didn’t die in his sleep. Instead, God sent an angel with a loaf of fresh-baked
bread hot off the coals and a pitcher of cold, clear water. “Eat!” said the
angel, “You’ll never make it if you don’t take care of yourself.” If you’ve
ever enjoyed a glass of ice-cold lemonade and an ice cream cone after pulling
weeds out of the garden on a hot summer afternoon, you’ll know how Elijah must
have felt! And after he ate something and had a good night’s sleep, Elijah was
able to continue on his journey. Even Elijah needed “the pause that refreshes.”
One commentary on this text wryly remarked that we should never underestimate
the value of a nap and a snack!
Now I’m not
going to preach this morning on why we should all take more time to physically
rest in our busy lives. We all know that we need to rest more than we do! You
know that; and I know that! No, what I want to emphasize this morning is that
we need to rest spiritually as well as physically. We need a pause to refresh
our souls just as much as we need to pause to refresh our bodies. Maybe you’ve
never imagined that our souls get weary. They certainly do, though. For
example, our souls get tired when we lose the self-esteem that we deserve as
children of God. Time and time again, I hear people tell me, “I don’t think
that I’m worthy of God’s love!” Maybe that’s because we have a long tradition
of hellfire-and-damnation preachers that tell us if we don’t shape us, we’re
toast! We hear over and over what sinners we are; and we start to believe that
God couldn’t possibly love us! We forget that sin really is just making
mistakes. We sin because we don’t know everything, because we can’t know everything, and because even
our best intentions sometimes lead to terrible results! God knows that. And God
loves us anyway, whether or not we think that we’re worthy of that love!
Our souls
get tired, too, when we work hard for God for the wrong reason. When we don’t
think that we’re worthy of God’s love, we start trying to earn that love by
doing all kinds of things that we know will please God. We participate in
mission projects; we donate money to the church and to all kinds of charitable
causes; and we try to be patient and loving to every single person. Those are
all very good things to do, but when we are doing them to earn God’s love,
whatever we do is never enough! We wonder day in and day out, “Am I doing
enough to make God happy?” No wonder our souls need to be refreshed! And the
truth is that God is already happy
with us! Like children who make their parents happy just by trying, God is
happy with us when we sincerely try to do what God wants. And it’s enough.
And certainly
our souls become weary when we compare ourselves to the spiritual giants of our
faith! Has anybody here ever looked at Mother Teresa and thought, “Wow. I could
never do that.” And as you think that, you feel like a second-rate Christian. I’m
guessing that everybody in this room has felt like that at one time or another!
But God gives each of us different gifts, and each of us has different
opportunities to use those gifts. Very few of us have the ability, the
inclination, or a calling from God to uproot everything and begin to minister
to needy people in a far-off land. Besides, how do you know that you aren’t
ministering to needy people right now? Do you make time for a friend who needs
a listening ear? Have you made a casserole for someone who needs a little bit
of help? Do you carry a blessing bag in your car so that you can give it to
someone begging on a street corner? Then you’re doing exactly what Mother
Teresa did! You’re just doing it in a different way and in a different place.
Pausing to refresh
your soul isn’t so much about stopping what you’re doing physically, but truly
believing that you are beloved by God just the way that you are; and that
nothing you do – or don’t do – will make God love you any less! That’s God’s
grace; and it invites you to relax! Poet Denise Levertov beautifully describes the pause
that refreshes our souls:
As swimmers dare to lie face to the sky, and
water bears them;
As hawks rest upon air and air sustains
them;
So would I learn to attain freefall, and
float into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing that no effort earns that
all-surrounding grace.
Float in
God’s grace. Realize that God loves you just as you are; that you don’t need to
earn that love, and that you are not – and have never been – a second-rate
Christian! Maybe you can’t do that all the time, but try doing it for an hour,
a few minutes, even a few moments. Take time for the pause that refreshes! God
wants you to do it, not only on this Labor Day, but every single day of your
life!
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