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Page 8 December 15, 2019 StarNews www.starnewsgaonline.com
The Pause
Lifegate Church
501 Permian Way, Villa Rica, GA
770-459-8653
office@mylifegatechurch.com
108 Stonebridge Drive, Bremen, GA
770-880-0162
office@lifegatebremen.com
www.lifegatebremen.com
“We Exist to Make Jesus Famous in Our
Homes, Community, and the World”
Christmas is one of my absolute, all-
time favorite seasons. And yes, I consider
Christmas to be an entire season;
beginning somewhere between July and
October (depending on how festive I’m
feeling) and ending in January.
Here is the list of things I LOVE about
Christmas, in no particular order:
decorations, Christmas music, giving gifts,
manger scenes, time spent with family and
friends, cheese (which, I know, isn’t
specifically relegated to Christmas, but
cheese is a good addition to any “things I
like” list), winter weather, and the pause
button.
The pause button is probably close to
the top of this list. Yes, it even beats out
cheese. (Shocking, I know!) So, what is this
“pause button”? It’s the button that the
entire world seems to push
at some point during the
Christmas season.
It’s the moment when
we slow down, truly look
at those around us, take a
moment to try to
understand their incredible
value and celebrate that. It
may be Christmas morning
around the Christmas tree,
or at the office Christmas party, or serving
with your kids at a shelter, or at a
Christmas Eve church service.
It comes in all forms, but always has one
thing in common: the decision we make to
pause. In that moment, we are not only
celebrating the season, but we are
embracing the people around us.
Our pause is telling them, “You
matter.” And in a day where time is a
fleeting commodity, the choice to give
time and attention to others is an
invaluable gift.
When I think back to the first
Christmas (which, by the way, had no
snow or cheese), I wonder if in that
moment, God was embracing the pause?
If, in His kindness, He had given His full
attention to all of humanity?
Perhaps, He had turned His face
towards us, and in all His goodness,
chosen to show us our incredible value.
Maybe, in His pause, He decided to not
only embrace those who were near to
Him, but to embrace those who had no
chance of being near to Him.
But here’s the best pan. We don’t have
to wonder. Because God didn’t just choose
a moment of pause, He
lives in the pause. His
face is always turned
towards us. His attention
is always about
embracing us.
Now that we’ve settled
that, let’s try to see the
moment of Jesus’ birth.
Try to imagine as the
entire universe held its
breath waiting for the physical, audible
voice of God to be heard through the cries
of a newborn. Imagine as Mary, Jesus’
mother, waited to meet not only her son,
but the very Prince of Heaven. All of
Heaven was waiting, sitting on the edge of
its seat, holding great anticipation for what
was about to happen. They all knew that
the course of all humanity was about to be
forever altered. Talk about a pause!
In the Bible, John 3:16 tell us that God
loved us so much that He gave us His one
and only son, Jesus. Jesus, having loved us
from before we were even created, took a
pause. He stepped out of Heaven and into
Earth. And with His first cry into that
very first Christmas night, He had already
shown us our worth. The cry of our
newborn King wasn’t just an infant’ cry. It
was a proclamation of the pause. A
declaration that humanity had found our
Savior.
See PASTOR AMY ADAMS page 25
Try to imagine
as the entire universe
held its breath waiting
for the physical, audible
voice of God to be
heard through the
cries of a newborn.
♦Senator Mike Dugan*
United States Senate District 30
REPUBLICAN #
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SENATOR MIKE DUGAN
Senate District 30 / Republican
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER
CAPITOL OFFICE
121-J State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
404-463-2478
mike.dugan@senate.ga.gov
COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Secretary: Veterans, Military, and Homeland Security
HI ember of the tollouting committees:
Administrative Affairs, Banking and Financial
Institutions, Economic Development and Tourism,
Ethics, Reapportionment and Redistricting,
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and Transportation
PAID FOR BY STATE SENATOR MIKE DUGAN