I’m not sure about you, but I don’t always handle interruptions from people well, especially depending on who it is or what I’m doing while it happens. Sometimes I can go with it, but sometimes I get very irritated. Because, as you know, interruptions don’t just affect time, they can also affect flow, focus, inspiration, motivation, and a host of other things, especially if we have a deadline.
Jesus, throughout his ministry, was constantly being interrupted. We see it when an invalid is lowered through a roof during one of his teaching sessions; we see it when a woman touches his robe while he’s on his way to someone’s house; we see it while he’s praying; and we see it over and over when he’s having dinner.
But Jesus never gets irritated or put out by these interruptions. He consistently stops what he’s doing to engage with those who come to him. Jesus always puts people first, before his tasks or business. There’s a lot I can learn from that.
More than that, though, is that Jesus always uses these interruptions as opportunities to teach about or show the glory of the Kingdom of God (which always results in the one interrupting being blessed). In fact, if you read the story of the paralyzed man lowered through the roof in Luke chapter 5, it even becomes apparent that although Jesus’ task was teaching in the house, the interruption was a divine appointment (pay special attention to verse 17).
Like Jesus, let’s begin to see interruptions differently, as divine appointments to see and show God’s glory, and to be fully present for those people or situations asking our time. This may mean we stop what we are doing and attend to them immediately or it may mean we schedule a time to meet with them later, but it never means that we brush them off. As we do this, the more we will come to see God’s hand in them, and to feel His promptings to respond in love and power.