Interruptions

Interruptions.

We don’t like them.

Do we?

I don’t think so.

We don’t like our schedule being interrupted.

Our plans.

Our agendas.

Our day.

Our life.

We have our to-do list.

Our ambitions.

Our dreams.

My life is just fine, thank-you very much, God.

Today I found myself preparing a Sunday School lesson on how God interrupts our lives – over the next few weeks some of the children will be looking at people in Scripture whose lives were interrupted by God.

So many people we read about in Scripture faced interruptions of one kind or another.

Divine interruptions.

God breaking in…interrupting…getting their attention…calling them to step out in a new direction…to embrace His call on their life.

And when they respond Yes, God seems to be at work.

This week the kids are thinking about Moses.

He was just getting on with his life.

Shepherding.

And God got his attention with a burning bush.

And when He had Moses’ attention, He spoke.

He interrupted Moses.

He broke in.

He called Moses.

Sure, Moses argued and debated God.

But finally, Moses said Yes.

And the rest, I guess, is history.

Disclaimer: thought in process!

I get that boundaries are healthy.

Boundaries can be part, I think, of the practice of Godly-wisdom – managing our lives and caring for ourselves in such a way that we might need.

But I wonder if in our highly organised lives…

…in our boundary-making lives…

I wonder…

if we miss out on divine interruptions…

..if we live in such a way that we miss out on God’s call to us in our daily lives, or we so schedule our lives that we leave ourselves no room to respond when He does interrupt.

In his classic book, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes on, what he calls, the ministry of helpfulness. He writes: We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and cancelling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions.

And God’s interruptions aren’t just big things….

Like moving overseas in some missionary capacity…

….or re-training so you can serve in a new way,

…or applying for a new job.

They might be these things.

But they might just as likely be listening to a colleague who’s having a bad day,

…or spending extra time with your child who’s sad even though you have a hundred different chores to do,

…or sending a message of encouragement when you feel the nudge of the Spirit,

…or stopping when God awakes your conscience to an area of discipleship that you hadn’t thought about before.

God’s interruptions will look like a thousand different things.

Question is: are we interruptible?