The Pause between Stimulus and Response

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Collect appointed for this Sunday prays that by the power of the Holy Spirit, God will enable us to "think and do always those things that are right." Likewise, the quote above from Viktor Frankl's classic Man's Search for Meaning suggests that we have much control over our response to a stimulus, particularly given Frankl's story about survival in the concentration camp and prisoners' choice of response to torture and starvation. Perhaps the Collect and Frankl's quote commend us not to utter audibly every thought that comes to our head. So often we need to pause between the thought and the expression of it, and as Frankl said, in that pause and that space lie our growth and our freedom...which enables us to do what is right in the eyes of God and according to God's will.

I pray that "the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart will always be acceptable to you, God" and that the Holy Spirit will tame my tongue so that in a miniscule way I might practice the great bravery and courage of the likes of Viktor Frankl. Surviving the unspeakable tragedy of the concentration camps required keeping space between the torturous stimulus and their responses, so that their responses would lead to growth and freedom.