I'm going to try and live my differently with how I respond to this particular and recurring element in my life: interruptions.We all get them. They come at the most inopportune times, when there's a million other things we're already multi-tasking between.
They'll arrive when we're sure that something else is much more important.
They inconvenience us, they annoy us, and they test our patience.
I'm guilty of not responding to them correctly. Without you seeing, I'll roll my eyes or give a discontent sigh. I'll let the ringing phone go into voice mail, or I'll make the executive decision that whatever it is "can wait."
But there's great theology behind interruptions. And I'm missing out on the practice of it.
It is these "small" needs of the people that surround me that can and should add up to their greatest need. And I must be only too happy to respond to their inopportune cries for help, no matter how insignificant I may judge the request to be. It is never my duty to judge; it is always mine to respond.
Remember that one day God will call home us when we least expect it. No one will know the time or the day. He could summon us in the middle of our favorite television show, just as dinner is being served to us at a restaurant, right before we're expecting a special visitor, or when we finally find a moment to ourselves. We must be open and ready, our ears attuned to His voice, our hands ready to instantly drop what we're doing and serve Him.
So, to respond to the needs of others by embracing these interruptions in our daily life is to make room for the Ultimate Interruption of His call to us on our journey home. We must not get in the habit of saying "no" to interruptions because to do so is to make ourselves prone to saying "no" to Him, including the tiny details of His will for our lives, which--I am finding--often tend to be the most beautiful and valuable pieces to the tapestry of our lives.
To respond to interruptions with warmth and love is really to respond the annunciations of God, just like the Blessed Mother did when the Angel Gabriel told her that she would bear a son named Jesus.
I pray that my Heavenly Father will help me to recognize interruptions as little annunciations of God's will for my life. He could be saying to me, "Stop your rush now, Lisa, and talk to your neighbor. She needs you in this moment."
Please pray that I may fully respond to all the interruptions I receive this week and view them as annunciations of His will.
