Last week, I listened to a sermon from a former pastor and he asked a question that made me hit pause on the video: are you interruptible?

Are you interruptible? Are you?

My answer is almost always, “No.” I don’t do changes, I don’t do interruptions, and I definitely always have a plan in my head for how things should go, what people should say, how I should act. etc. I am fully the most non-interruptible woman on the planet… or at least it definitely feels like it most days. And (oh man) did the conviction from that question follow me around.

Fast forward a few days and this morning, I read the following passage:

And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.

And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

In this passage, I would be the Jericho resident who knew this blind man by first name, who knew that the man could not see, who knew that Jesus was known for healing blind men, and yet still tried to shush this guy into not bothering the One Who could really change his life. I’m the one who doesn’t do interruptions. That’s my natural inclination: to avoid interruptions and react badly when they do come along.

And (oi) do I know that’s not a good thing. But here’s the thing: sometimes God’s greatest opportunities for miraculous change in our lives will be in between the heres and theres. While we’re journeying towards a goal that we know He gave us, He introduces us to an opportunity to serve.

A good example of this would be the Good Samaritan. In the passage, a man is badly beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite both passed by him, seeing him and his need, but unwilling to interrupt their journeys. Then, a Samaritan (aka the enemy) walked by and the Bible says this in Luke 10:33, “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” This Samaritan, through an interruption, was able to act the way a believer should act: with compassion.

What opportunities to serve have I missed because I was uninterruptable? What chances to love like Christ loves have I missed because I was uninterruptable? How can I change my attitude towards interruptions in my daily living to allow myself more opportunities for love and service?

1. Know my resources. If I’m depending on myself to have the strength to handle crazy circumstance that happen along the way, I’m always going to fail. The unexpected interruptions would consume my peaceful spirit to its core. But we know that in Lamentations 3:22-23, God’s Word tells us, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” God provides us every single morning with the resource of His mercies: they are new every morning. This means that we have a resource of strength when weakening interruptions come along, peace when tumultuous interruptions come along, wisdom when sly interruptions come along, and grace when harmful interruptions come along. We have the resource of the mercies of an all-knowing, all-powerful God: He tailor makes new mercies for us to handle every situation that He already knew we’d be facing.
2. Ask the right questions. When an upsetting interruption comes into your path, we should ask ourselves the questions: who put this here? What could I learn from this? How should I learn and grow from this unexpected interruption? By mentally forcing yourself to think through each interruption, you learn to train your thoughts into looking for God’s lessons in every unexpected situation. As it says in 2 Corinthians 2:15, we should be “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ […]” through choosing how we approach the interruptions of our daily living.
3. Trust God’s knowledge. God knows. When we’re frustrated because of the unexpected traffic jam that’s going to make us late, God knows: He’ll help us handle it. When we’re hurt from our plans not going the way we thought they would, God knows: He’ll help us handle it. When we’re betrayed by that friend out of the blue, God knows: He’ll help us handle it. God knows what we’ve been through, God knows what’s happening right now, and God know’s what interruptions are headed over to you next. He is well capable of helping you through any of it. Our lives are most certainly going to be interrupted by unlovely things, but we don’t have to let the interruptions rule our spirit. By using our resources, asking the right questions, and trusting God’s knowledge more than our own, we’re able to handle life’s interrupting moments the way Christ would.

So, let me ask: are you interruptible?

Love, Meghan