SACRED INTERRUPTIONS

“Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.”  (Matthew 8:14-15)

We are not alone. I firmly believe it, partly because I have experienced God’s presence in my life directly as well as through my encounters with others. I’m an extrovert and I’ve always loved people. I truly enjoy meeting people and getting to know them. For the last several years of my life, I have been a full-time singer/songwriter. It seems like I spend a lot of my time coming and going. As I read the stories of Jesus, I notice that He interacted with lots of folks in His comings and goings. People interrupted Him with requests, needs, and questions. He seemed to have the gift of perspective, recognizing priority and importance even in the interruption. He made time to deal with whatever or whoever He bumped into along His journey. Certainly His destination was important, but given His ability to stop and to give, the journey may have been just as significant as where He was headed. 

-- Celia Whitler in “On the Way to Somewhere: Stories and Songs for the Journey”

#5600

ETERNITY INTERRUPTED TIME

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made… The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  (John 1:1-3,14)

[Jesus] came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. God tapped humanity on its collective shoulder, "Pardon me," he said, and eternity interrupted time, divinity interrupted carnality, and heaven interrupted the earth in the form of a baby. Christianity was born in one big heavenly interruption. 

-- Max Lucado

#5502

HOW DO YOU SEE PEOPLE?

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.”  (Matthew 14:14)

When Jesus looked out at the crowds interrupting His day off, He saw people who longed for God. People who had rowed three miles across the lake or walked seven miles to reach Him. People who’d made a real effort to spend their time with Him.

To Jesus, the gathered people were “like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). Jesus was tired, but the people in front Him were more important than His own plans and need of rest. Jesus saw people as God saw them. How do you see people? Especially those who interrupt your “me time” or who cause you irritation or frustration on busy days?

Ask God to help you see people through His eyes. Look at people from His point of view, as sheep who need the Shepherd. Then be willing to give your time and energy to help them find Him. Move your focus off yourself and onto the needs of others… for Jesus’ sake! 

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”

#5110

INTERRUPTIONS TO OUR SCHEDULE

Jesus wants us to see that the neighbor next door or the people sitting next to us on a plane or in a classroom are not interruptions to our schedule. They are there by divine appointment.  Jesus wants us to see their needs, their loneliness, their longings, and He wants to give us the courage to reach out to them.

-- Rebecca Manley Pippert

#3830

INTERRUPTED BY GOD

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.  God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions.  We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps -- reading the Bible.  When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that not our way, but God's way must be done.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in Life Together

#3808