Disruptions

Over the weekend, a friend sent me a link to a blog about a family who adopted two children from Ethiopia in June. In two of her recent posts, here and here, the Mom writes about how her life has changed from being childless to mothering two little ones. Her "new normal" has come with lots of little interruptions in the form of "one-more-big cuddle hug." And she loves it.

I had just read those two posts yesterday and had them on my mind when my pastor made this statement in his sermon today: "Pursuing Christ disrupts our lives if we are doing it right." He then went on to talk about how we have to realize that the disruptions are worth it.

Disruptions occur in my life on a daily basis: a traffic light that is blinking red in all directions and delaying the flow of traffic to a phone call coming in during the middle of a project to a letter in the mail that requires me to take additional actions. I didn't wake up knowing that any of those things would intersect my day. Yet, I tend to greet each of those items differently depending on how they benefit me. It's as if there's an intuitive "weighing process" that occurs instantaneously that I'm not really conscious of. For instance, sometimes the traffic lights flashing red give me time to search through my purse and put on lipstick, but other times, they just make me late to work. The phone call, depending on who it is from and the time it arrives, also gets different responses. Same with the mail.

Yet, with any of the disruptions, I could choose to respond positively if I set out to do that. But it's as if I need to be more aware of the intuitive process.

That goes along with our pastor's challenge to think critically about why something is bad or good. In my examples above, that might mean looking deeper to see why some of those disruptions create a negative reaction. Is it because I didn't plan well and was going to be late anyway? Is it because I hold out my time as more important than others'? That's when it starts to not look so easy or so pretty.

But the real question is whether I will allow Christ to disrupt my life. Maybe the traffic light was a disruption for a purpose. Or maybe the phone call that I want to ignore is an opportunity to pray for someone. And I might miss it. Especially if I am in the mindset that MY time is king and no one will get a piece of it because it is already earmarked for MY purposes. Oh how I don't want that to be my mindset.

Lord, help me respond with an open heart when disruptions come my way. Help me to recognize that some disruptions have greater purposes than I will ever see or know and that Your disruptions are worthy of my time.