Life’s interruptions offer us an important reminder

Interruptions have an odd way of knocking us off course.

Perhaps it’s because they sneak up on us and are usually unwelcome. Our busy lives these days allow little time for interruptions.

But it is the interruptions in life that reveal to us what we seldom like to admit: You and I don’t control much of anything. At any moment, a change in health, occupation or even some simple part of our routine can threaten our stability.

How we handle God’s interruptions speaks deeply to our spiritual condition and reminds us who is really in charge.

Our sovereign God uses interruptions to teach us, help us grow stronger, and pull us into a closer dependence upon him. When our plans for a day, or a month, or even a lifetime abruptly change, we can run into the arms of the one who never changes.

James 1:17 tells us that our God is one who “does not change like shifting shadows.” His peace, protection and provision are ever-present.

Whether we really believe this truth so often is revealed by an interruption.

I’ve had some time to think about this lately, thanks to a fairly minor interruption. One recent morning, I hopped into the car, turned the key and was greeted by an uninspired sputtering that instantly let me know the day would not go as planned.

Bad timing. I was already behind schedule; hospital visits, a newspaper deadline and then more visitation beckoned.

I was looking forward to the day and eager to get started, so my Jeep’s ailment caught me a bit off guard. So did the arrival of a tow truck an hour or so later, and then a mechanic’s foreboding question: “How many days can we keep it?”

I felt the pull of anxiety and worry. Didn’t want to go there.

How quickly the slightest interruption sends us flailing about!

Often God allows far greater interruptions. Those I had planned to visit in the hospital that morning had their lives interrupted profoundly. So, too, did the tow truck driver, who recently had returned from two tours of duty in Iraq.

Nothing like someone else’s interruptions to put our own into perspective.

How do you handle interruptions? A lifestyle of busyness almost guarantees that we’ll greet an interruption in ways we’ll later regret.

Let’s face it – we’re all busy. Most of us feel inconvenienced just by waiting a bit too long in the fast-food line.

Busyness is that tendency to allow a glut of routine things to become the urgent commander of our time, so much so that even a minor interruption in routine provokes panic, anger or anxiety. Busyness, the archenemy of a peaceable spirit, often conspires with change to pull our focus off the things that matter most in life.

We take a giant step toward accepting God’s interruptions simply by slowing down the pace of our lives. The Apostle Paul encouraged Christians in Thessalonica to consider the merits of life run at a sensible pace: “…Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.…” (1 Thessalonians 4:11).

When an interruption is big enough, we call it change: A career ends. Health fails. Finances collapse. A friend tells us something we don’t want to hear.

It’s odd that we fight change and find it so hard to accept, because it’s one of the few certainties in life. You’d think we’d get used to it, but we don’t.

Change will come, welcomed or not.

Self-focus almost always assures that we’ll react poorly to change. So often we ask “Why me?” when God interrupts our plans with his providence. His answer is often: “Why not?”

He uses change to draw our attention away from ourselves and onto him.

Remember the story of Mary and Martha, two sisters who spent an evening with Jesus and his disciples? Martha was a frenzy of panicked activity as she prepared a meal for the savior. Mary, on the other hand, sat at Jesus’ feet listening to his teaching.

In frustration, Martha finally begged Jesus to tell her sister to get to work.

Jesus’ response is instructive: “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).

Martha chafed at an interruption in her plan for a perfect meal. Mary, instead, craved a message from the Lord.

We’re blessed when we allow interruptions to call us to the feet of our savior and listen intently to what he wants to tell us. That means we must yield to the will of God.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but… present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).