ALL THOSE INTERRUPTIONS

 Last night I wrote about the importance of not wishing away my kids' growing up years, even when some of those years are difficult ones.  Something else I have to fight against wishing away is the interruptions that I often see as taking me away from something important when, in fact, those interruptions are the important things.

The best example of this is the life of Jesus.  His ministry seemed to be one long string comprised of interruption after interruption after interruption.  He's walking down a crowded street and a woman whose been bleeding for years reaches out and grabs His garment because she's desperate for a healing.  He's teaching and another woman is brought to Him because she's been caught in adultery and some religious folks want to stone her.  Another time he's at a dinner party and a yet another woman interrupts the scene, this time she pours expensive oil on his feet and just loves on Him.

All three of these happenings, plus so many others, weren't on Jesus' official agenda for the day.  They occurred as He was on His way somewhere or already doing an activity.  Now Jesus isn't known for frivolously using His time.  He was about His Father's business doing eternally important things.  But despite the fact that He was already busy doing the things He'd been sent to do, He didn't see these interruptions as bad things.  In fact, He not only would willingly serve those who got in the way of the plans, but He would often use those very interruptions to teach very important Kingdom principles.  He saw these interruptions as valuable because He loved and valued the people who were interrupting Him.  He also loved the people observing Him during these times, loved the people --- us --- that He knew would one day be reading about these occurrences, and He wanted wanted us to learn from them.

.

Sometimes those lessons where hard teaching times, times of rebuke and correction such as toward the men who wanted to kill the sinning woman.  Other times, He wanted His disciples and other followers to learn by example.

.

Under girding all these teaching moments was a binding thread of love.  He allowed these interruptions because He loved the people involved.  He loved the people watching and He loved those in need.  He didn't let a time schedule or the shallow agendas of other people keep Him from doing what was most important....loving those who were rejected, setting free those in bondage, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind.  By stopping and attending to the needs of those who others probably perceived as interruptions, He changed the very course of those people's lives, both here and in eternity.  He saw these times not as interruptions to His purpose but the very essence of His purpose.

.

Now if Jesus, who was the only begotten son of Father God and sent to earth for a very limited time and a specific purpose, knew that by attending to the interruptions He was actually fulfilling His purpose, then shouldn't we as His followers?  But all too often, we don't see them this way.

.

More often than I care to admit, I let pleas for help --- whether from my kids, husband, or strangers --- irritate me and I just see them as interruptions of the "important" stuff. God is teaching me thru living here at We Will Go that often those interruptions ARE the important stuff.  That homeless guy needing a pair of socks, the church person dropping by with donations, the child who needs help with tying their shoes, or the older man who is hungry and wants something to eat, they are all loved by God and very important to Him.

.

He knows their needs and He desires to see them served and loved.  He desires for them to experience His powerful love in tangible ways and for them to be encouraged just a few more steps along their God journey.  If He chooses to let me be a part of that journey, then instead of sighing deeply over one more knock on the door or yet another child asking for help, I should actually be filled with joy and gratitude that He has blessed me with the opportunity to be His hands and feet here in this all-too often uncaring and too-busy world..

 

Even if that act of love looks like a jar of pickled pig feet given to a neighbor in need who, believe it or not, really loves pickled pig feet.

"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or arguing,¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”

  Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky"

Philipians 2:1-15