Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Editor’s note: Long weekends are wonderful. Until you return to work on Tuesday. For today’s summer rerun, we’re sharing one of Richelle Thompson’s past posts that seems appropriate as many of us return to an overstuffed inbox after the long Independence Day weekend. 

I pride myself on an ability to multitask. But I also resent when the unexpected takes me away from my well-laid plans.

During breakfast, my dining companion talked about a willingness to be open to the work of the Spirit. A one-time parish secretary, she embraced a “theology of interruption.”

And I began to pray right there that I could practice this philosophy. See, I’m easily frustrated by interruption. When traffic jams up my schedule, I’m annoyed. When I’m hip-deep in crafting a difficult sentence, I don’t want to answer the phone or talk about expense reports or answer inventory questions. When I’m reading a great novel, I don’t want to hear how one child said something mean to the other.

Leave me alone. I have plans here. Can’t you see I’m busy?

Yet what could happen if I saw interruption as opportunity? If I started looking for God in those moments instead of cursing under my breath? If I created space for the Spirit to introduce me to something new and wonderful? 

Jesus is constantly being interrupted. Heal me. Teach me. Touch me. Someone in the crowd breaks through a roof, tugs on his robe, accosts him on a street. And yet it is in these moments of interruption that we see the divine. We see Jesus work miracles. We see grace and holiness. 

Let me be like Jesus today. Let me be open to interruption. Let me see God’s hand in the unexpected. 

Amen.

This post was first published on ECF Vital Practices May 15, 2014.