Have you ever been interrupted? Like, when you are making a great point and someone interrupts you! Or you are giving a presentation and someone’s cell phone rings with one of those fancy ringtones. Or, you are about to propose to your lady friend at a fancy restaurant and the host or hostess tells you that your lights are still on in the car!
How rude.
Well I have been interrupted many times in my life and probably more times than I care to admit, I have been the one doing the interrupting.
Ever since I discovered that someone said January is appreciation month, I have been looking for things to be thankful for. Today, I am learning to appreciate life’s interruptions.
Someone interrupting your thought process is just one way an interruption can occur, but what about life events?
But what are some other ways we might be interrupted. Maybe you become ill and can’t get to work or school? Or, your car breaks down when you are rushing to an appointment. Or maybe still, you are making waffles and the waffle iron won’t come on – interrupting your time to get some breakfast!
Interruptions can make us feel frustrated and impatient.
I remember a day when I was rushing to get to our church. I could not find my keys anywhere. I looked all over the house for them. I looked in my pants pockets and dresser drawers. I was becoming frustrated because I did not want to be late.
They finally turned up in the pants I was wearing in my left pocket. Since my left leg is artificial I could not feel the keys against my skin.
I got in the car and drove off to the church only to get stuck behind an accident. More frustration ensued. And, now I am starting to become impatient.
However, after I passed the wreck, I thought about that accident. It looked as if it happened about 10 minutes prior to my arrival. Almost the exact amount of time it took for me, back at the house, to discover my car keys were in my pocket. If I had found those keys 10 minutes earlier, that might have been me in that accident as well.
In our frustration and impatience many times we do not realize what the interruption might be saving us from?
In Our Daily Bread, on Jan 28th, Julie Ackerman Link wrote, “inconvenience could be God’s way of protecting us from some unseen danger, or it could be an opportunity to demonstrate God’s grace and forgiveness. It might be the start of something even better than we had planned. Or it could be a test to see how we respond to adversity. ”
In the terrorist attack on 911, I lost three friends in the Pentagon. And, in the tragedy of all the lives lost that day, there were many more that were saved, many of them by an inconvenience.
Greer Epstein of Morgan Stanley, who worked in the World Trade Center on the 67th floor, never took breaks. But on 9-11 at 9:00 am a co-worker interrupted her and coaxed her into a smoke break down on outside the building. One of the planes crashed into her office.
A scheduling error interrupted a flight attendant from getting on Flight 175, which crashed into the World Trade Center.
Many others were late going to work at the Pentagon. When asked why they were running late many replied they were interrupted by procrastination!
So, the next time you can’t find your keys, or your car breaks down unexpectedly, or you find yourself sick, think about what the interruption might be keeping you from or the lesson it may be teaching you.
