Interrupted

"Mom. Mom. Mom. Mo-om. Mo-om! MO-OM!!!"

My child persisted, her voice grew louder, and my name became a two-syllable word. I was trying to chat with another mom while we watched gymnastics, but the child whose class finished first was vying for my attention.

Chances are, if we hadn't been where we were with lots of people around, I would have responded to her persistence with a firm (and likely loud), "Stop interrupting me!" Instead, I did my best to merely ignore her.

With five kids, I tend to feel as though every single task is disrupted - working on the computer, chatting on the phone, cooking, talking to my husband, vacuuming, exercising, even laundry (though I don't mind being cut short from that one)... Frankly, I don't like it when my plans get messed with.

Sometimes (understatement of the year), God has a different plan than I do. The only way He can get my attention and obedience is to flat out interrupt me in the middle of where I'm at. I wonder if I ignore His interjections in the same way I try to ignore my kids'.

How long do you suppose God was telling me it was time to step away from leading women's ministry? Eventually, I imagine He just said to Himself, "Well, she's just not hearing Me. I guess I'll have to uproot her so that she has no choice but to release that ministry and step into this next thing I have in mind."

I wonder how many times He tried to tell me I should tithe and give generously, before He allowed us to experience painful financial struggles (which led to our receiving such a generous gift from someone else that we simply could not imagine not giving of our own finances)?

In both those situations (and many more), in retrospect, I can recall God nudging me long before He intervened. But obedience would have messed up my comfortable plans, so instead I ignored Him.

Priscilla Shirer calls the interrupted life the privileged life. She explains that we are given the divine privilege of hearing from God, and we are invited by Him - personally - to join Him in His work.

Do you feel like your plans are being messed with?

Maybe you planned to have a thriving career, but having children resulted in a need to be home. Life interrupted? Or divine invitation?

Perhaps you planned to be happily married to the man of your dreams, but you're still waiting for him to show up well into your thirties. Or are you married, but discovered that sometimes, happily just never seems to come? Life interrupted? Or divine invitation?

I want to learn to view God's intervention in my life as His divine invitation to partner with Him. I don't want to be the girl who has her fingers stuck in her ears and sings, "La, la, la, I can't hear you," when God speaks. If God asks me to join Him in His work - even if it messes with my hopes, dreams, and plans - I want to say yes right away.

What about you? What kind of difference do you think it would make if you began to view life's interruptions as God's invitation? Is there something you would have said "yes" to long ago?


* My thoughts have been inspired while studying Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted by Priscilla Shirer.