Tag Archive for interruptions

Blessed by Problems

2016-08-30 Devotional with Hymn No comments

A small computer problem evolved into a massive computer problem. It dragged on for a week, absorbing much of my time and attention, before finally sending my faithful old computer to an unexpected grave. Then came the transition time as I waited on my new computer to arrive, then worked with my programmer-daughter to get set up and operational.

During this painful time when my routines were totally disrupted, the Lord taught me several valuable lessons.

Prayer

My work as a writer involves transitional times – brief periods when I decompress and prepare my mind to move from one task to another. Normally such transitional times are filled with diversions, like Facebook or computer games. They absorb my attention without taxing my mind, so I find them helpful. But without my computer, I turned my spare moments more often to prayer. Such “simple prayer” throughout the day helps me fellowship with God more naturally and constantly. God used my computer problems to draw me closer to Himself.

Thank You, Father. Continue to draw me and teach me.

Productivity

As a writer, I definitely missed my computer as a work tool. But the Lord kept me productive without it. He led me to write a hymn, Our God Came to Visit. Hymn-writing is less computer-dependent than other types of writing.

He also led me to do even more Bible study than usual. A meditative study of Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 was particularly meaningful and refreshing.

God uses our human tools but is never dependent on them.

Patient Endurance

Patient endurance is one of the most precious but least sought Biblical virtues. When our discomfort absolutely MUST stop but doesn’t, we patiently endure. My computer situation exercised this valuable quality.

Father, You are good. You bless us in unexpected ways, even through our suffering.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Good Gifts
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Interruptions

2013-10-29 Creative Process, Devotional No comments

As I read the gospels, it seems that most of Jesus’ miracles, most of His teaching opportunities, most of His chances to display His Father’s words and works, arrived as interruptions. As He went about His day, He encountered people–all kinds of people: hungry people, sick people, seeking people, devious people, desperate people. People were His priority. And let’s face it: people are the main source of interruptions. Deal with people, dare to respond to people, and you’ll have interruptions.

We resent interruptions because they intrude on our agenda. Jesus had no agenda but the Father’s. Thus He didn’t resent interruptions because He received them as from His Father. He welcomed them as opportunities to express God’s grace and truth in the lives of needy people. He dove into such opportunities with all His heart and soul.

We flinch at interruptions because they are unexpected and unsought. They blind-side us and drag us where we’re not prepared to go. Jesus was completely and comfortably dependent on His Father, so He was never threatened by the unexpected.

I deeply desire God’s moment-by-moment leading. He is teaching me that such leading inevitably involves what I have called “interruptions”. His wisdom, His leadership, His opportunities for service are often unexpected and unsought. They are intrusions on my well-planned agenda. Of course, there are times when the agenda is from Him and the interruption is not. I can’t and shouldn’t chase every rabbit, and I’ll need His discernment to tell them apart. But very often, interruptions only threaten my agenda, not His.

Over my years of serving the Lord, I’ve noticed two things about interruptions:

1. As a writer, many of my most meaningful pieces arrived as interruptions. While I was intently working on something else, He gifted me with something better.

2. When He interrupts my carefully-planned schedule, nothing is ever lost. Nothing. God never fights against His own work. I have no reason to be afraid and protective. He often surprises me with increased productivity, and all His work gets done in a natural, unhurried, creatively-satisfying way.

Join with me in learning to be more flexible, more trusting, more responsive to God’s leading. As older writers put it, be as responsive to the Spirit as a feather on a breeze. No matter what type of work we do, as Christians, people are our priority, and people bring interruptions. But God’s interruptions are always opportunities. Welcome them! After all, for blind and ignorant creatures like us, such interruptions are inherent in the privilege of serving the transcendent God. His thoughts and ways are far above are own.

He wants to make your life more fruitful in unexpected ways. Are you willing to let Him?