Interruptions

December 18, 2019

Most of the time, we despise interruptions. We have our plans; we’re on a schedule, and can’t be bothered with anything that gets in the way. I don’t know if Christians and other religious people have more trouble with interruptions than others, but when we’re on a mission from God, they aren’t just interruptions, they are deviations from God’s divine plan.

Except for when they are God’s plan. Moses was tending sheep in the desert when God himself interrupted him in a burning bush. “You’re going back to Egypt,” God told him, contrary to whatever plans he might have had for the rest of the day. Jonah had other destinations in mind when he got an express ride in a fish bound for Nineveh. Saul was busy arresting Christians when a blinding light changed his plans. Augustine was fooling around with his mistress when his mother’s prayers caught up with him and turned him into a doctor of the church.

Then there was the priest and Levite who refused to be interrupted to help a man lying wounded by the side of the road. After all, they had important work to attend to...work for God himself. It was the despised Samaritan who stopped to help. 

We had plans this week, stuff to do, work to accomplish, important stuff. A couple funerals later, a request for transportation for a grandchild, helping organize bags of food and clothing to be given away in Dunkirk, plus a blizzard that reorganized the day, and all our plans blew away like snow in the wind. It’s tempting to let interruptions irritate us; after all, they don’t fit neatly into the life we’ve arranged. Seeing them instead as bearers of grace changes everything. God isn’t always interested in our plans; he has his own, and those interruptions are God’s way of getting us to look at life and people differently. They also help us see ourselves differently. When we get upset over interruptions, we’re really saying we know best, that our plans are most important, after all, everything exists for my benefit, doesn’t it? Interruptions reveal my selfishness and self-centeredness. They are a mirror to my soul, and I don’t always like what I see.

Somehow by God’s mercy, I was able to look at the day’s interruptions differently, to see them as a gift from God. A different perspective changed everything, for which I am thankful tonight.