Interruptions

Have you ever had one of those days or weeks when things didn’t quite work the way you had planned? You have a vision of how things are going to go and then events take over or a phone call comes or a visitor appears. This is how my week has been. I have had one thing after another that seemed to sidetrack so many of my plans, which affect the plans of others. Oh, it doesn’t mean that the things I have to get done go away, but it often means that there are obstacles and roadblocks and interruptions to getting those things accomplished. You know exactly what I’m talking about, you have been there as well.

I often want to just throw my hands in the air and say, “I GIVE UP!!!”

We I read portions of the Bible I encounter many characters who have the same sort of experiences––sometimes there are obstacles of their own making; sometimes God puts up roadblocks; sometimes others cause interruptions to the flow of routine––but in all of these experiences, at least in my own life and in observing others, one thing that I notice is that God is still working.

God works in individual lives, in community, in difficulty, walking through valleys of the shadows of death, in joys and on mountaintops. God works in times of celebration and times of sorrow when communities come together to remember.

Sometimes when our plans don’t work out the way we envisioned them it is exasperating. But here is a challenge, it is what I was challenged with this week to stop and see God at work—in other people, in a gruff stranger that helped, in an enemy, in a quiet moment you hadn’t planned on, even in the desperation of having to ask someone else for help. Where is God at work in your life that maybe you were too busy planning to see God? Take a deep breath and experience a fresh breath of God’s presence.