Divine Interuption

The last week in April I was frantically trying to catch up from everything that had piled up from my trip to be with my mother. Yet, somehow, all my best laid plans for catching up just were not working. Right when I would start getting something accomplished, the phone would ring. Or, as soon as I was ready to conquer the next thing, an emergency of one sort or another would arise. Whether it was long but lengthy conversations over MySpace or Instant Messaging on the computer, unexpected staff concerns, or visits that I needed to make, my week went nothing like I planned it to.
There are times where our non-work lives happen like this as well. We have our goals. We have our plans. We have all our ducks in a row. And then all the interruptions happen. We fall in love. Unexpected children are born. A car breaks down. We get ill. The life of ministry I live is not that much different than the rest of life. We have all sorts of interruptions and unexpected twists and turns.
And if you are like me, the interruptions at life and work can sometimes get frustrating. We want to be in control. We want to be in charge of what is happening.
We want to accomplish things. We want to feel important. We have a to-do list and a honey-do list after all.
The thing is, the important things in life (and ministry) often come in the form of an interruption. Both my sister and I came into existence while my parents were using birth control. Yet, my mother consistently tells us were the best thing that has ever happened in her life. We were an interruption. But a wonderful and important one. Which of us hasn’t been taken aback by an unbelievably beautiful sunset? Again, an interruption.
The Bible is full of interruptions. Especially in the life and ministry of Jesus. The feeding of the five thousand happened because everything did not go according to plan. Jesus arrives late to a healing of a young child because he is interrupted by a woman who wants to be healed. Instead of taking away an illness, Jesus then resuscitates a dead person. And, the parable of the Good Samaritan shows us that
the one who can move away from his or her agenda to love and serve another human being is the one who is faithful to the Scriptures and the Gospel. Even the Easter resurrection is an interruption of the grief of the women and the apostles.
So I looked at the interruptions in my plans for the week, and I chose to see them as opportunities and blessings. And I told myself over and over again, “interruptions are not just a part of the ministry, they ARE the ministry!”. And I was blessed. Because once I got past the fact that the interruption were keeping me from all my busywork, I remembered that the interruptions were what I got into ministry for in the first place. It just took more trust and faith in God to see it.