Interruptions

Daily Gratitude Year 6- Day 115: Today, I will choose to be grateful for interruptions.

There is nothing more empowering than a reasonable task list and a enough time to do it. The day in front of you is well planned and you are the director orchestrating the "to-do" list with every intention of the day unfolding like a beautiful symphony. You might even have a piece of "fun" scheduled into the day. 

Then it happens. The interruption is real. Sometimes it is big. Sometimes it is small. It is always a place of choices, decision and response. When will I ever learn? 

"Sometimes the interruption is the assignment." 

Friends, this powerful message is hits home with a power that humbles me to my knees. I spend my days in a pattern of unknown and constant interruptions. I do not always look at them with my God goggles to discern the assignment. I need this reminder daily. 

My Bible Study right now is a walk through the New Testament in chronological order. It will take a year. Right now, we are at the crucifixion part of Jesus time on earth. We have thumbed back and forth through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This quote is glaring after spending these first four months of the year walking with Jesus. His ministry was nothing but interruptions. 

Yes, Jesus would choose where they would go next, and he did it at times with urgency. Other times, he surprised the disciples with the odd times he would pause to engage the least likely person in the crowd. The children. The sick. The women. People of questionable ethnicity and morality. 

The longest recorded conversation with Jesus happens with the Samaritan woman at the well. She had many husbands and her current live in arrangement did not include marriage. The Jews saw her as unclean. Even the people in her village raised their eyebrows at her current circumstance, even if they understood that she had experienced a hard and less than perfect life. 

Jesus saw her hurt and met her need. She gave him water from the well, and he gave her the living water of forgiveness, restoration and new life. 

Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” -John 4:13-14

What she gave him was a temporary fix for his thirst. He gave her redemption, hope and the promise of never being the same. The interruption was the assignment. A gentile woman with a past... but a kind, open heart. He saw her heart and her potential. She started a revival in her town.

"The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” So the people came streaming from the village to see him." - Luke 4:28-30

Our plan fo the day may be beautiful, but His is always better. How we adjust for the God-assignments is a choice. Do embrace them and do the work of the Kingdom? Or, do we reject them and proceed with our own plans for the day? Which will bring more joy?

"To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ." -Colossians 1:27-28

Read Luke 4 and savor that Christ declares to the Samaritan woman that he is the Messiah and that he came for all people, not just the Jews. The new covenant would soon be sealed in blood, orchestrated by the church leaders and carried out by the government in charge. 

Again... the interruption was the assignment.  

Today, I will look at interruptions with new eyes and choose gratitude.