Interruption or Opportunity?

Wake-up, check
Quiet time, check
Workout, check
Breakfast, check
Phone rings….

Checking things off my to-do list is a feeling that is hard to explain. I spend a good bit of time outlining my day from the meals I’m going to cook, to the lessons I plan on teaching my children, and even what household chores need to be completed. I like to have a schedule; I like to be prepared; I like to accomplish tasks. But sometimes the phone rings, a text bings, or there is an unexpected knock at the door with an urgent need that doesn’t fit into my perfectly planned out day. So what do I do?

This was exactly what happened recently. I was on a roll, accomplishing tasks, checking off to do lists, I even had dinner prepped before lunch. Everything was going perfectly, at least according to my schedule, but then my phone binged. It was a friend who’s day wasn’t going as planned, a friend in need of a little assistance in rearranging her day and coordinating childcare for her family because of an unexpected event. I was faced with a dilemma, do I throw my well orchestrated day out the window in order to help a friend or do I decline in order to keep checking things off of my to-do list?

We are all faced with moments in life, some big and some small, which ask us are we willing to throw our plans out the window in order to be a part of God’s plans? Although, the better question is: do you look at moments like these (where your plans change) as interruptions to your life or opportunities to grow in Christ? It is so easy to get caught up in our own to-do list, schedule, and wants that we forget that we are not our own. We are daughters of the King and He has big plans for us, plans that won’t always match our own but will always surpass our own.

If we take a moment to remember people who had their lives very much altered by opportunities God presented them with, we may see the picture a little clearer:

When two Israelite spies entered Rahab’s home she hadn’t planned on hiding men from the king, but in that interruption of life God gave her the opportunity to be part of the Israelites coming into the land God had promised them (Joshua 2).

When Esther was sent away to the king’s palace and chosen as queen it isn’t the life a Jewish girl would have planned for. That change of plans gave her the opportunity to intercede on behalf of the Israelite people (Esther 1-9).

When Ruth’s husband died leaving her a widow she was presented (urged even) with the option to return home but she chose to stay with Naomi. This life’s interruption became an opportunity to be blessed by God as a part of the lineage of Jesus (Ruth 1-4).

These interruptions may seem bigger than the ones that you are faced with, but the opportunities to be used by God are always big. So the next time the phone rings, a text bings, or there is an unexpected knock at the door, ask yourself:

Is this an interruption to my life or an opportunity from God?

In case you were wondering I threw my schedule out the window. In doing so, I came to the realization that God’s plans are so much bigger and better than mine, so why not let Him interrupt my schedule with an opportunity to serve others and glorify Him.

Are you going to ignore life’s interruptions or are you going to take the interruptions as an opportunity to serve God?

Blessings,

Laura Dedmon