I just started reading John M. Perkins and Shane Claiborne book Follow Me to Freedom and by far it has been one of the most encouraging books I have read. I wanted to share with you an excerpt from the book. (and this is only from page 28) I was most encouraged by the post below because it helped me make MUCH sense of the life that we are called to. Not just as missionaries, but as wives, and mothers."Interruptions are the theme in scripture. We have a God who is continually interrupting us- interrupting our routines, our patterns of inequity, the status quo. Abraham's life was interrupted. Moses' life was interrupted. John's life and my life were interrupted by the spirit. The gospels are stories of interruption after interruption. Jesus was at a wedding in Cana when His mother interrupted Him and said, "they have no more wine". He had just stepped ashore in a region called the Gerasenes when He was interrupted by the cries of a demon-possessed man. He was on His way to visit a sick child when a touch on His sleeve interrupted Him and He felt the power go out from Him. The incredible thing is that Jesus was always available and attentive to the interruptions and surprises, like someone who stops to fix a flat tire for a stranded motorist. Jesus was never so fixed on His vision for the Kingdom that He missed the needs of folks right next to Him. Sometimes Jesus even gets in trouble in most churches for wasting time with washing feet and drawing in the dirt; after all there's so much "meaningful" work to be done...like attending board meetings, raising funds for buildings and sitting in on conference calls(wink). Most days, our life in Philly feels like one interruption after another. It is packed with surprises: a knock at the door, an emergency or a kid who wants to show us the first sunflower bed. It seems that these are the very thing so many of us try to squeeze out of our lives. We love predictability. We don't want anything to alter our course, even if we know there is something beautiful on the other end of the interruption. We'd rather just keep to the daily grind and the meaningless toil that is familiar and humdrum, rather than have our rhythms broken. Yet, we have a God who is all about interrupting us. What if we missed the "interruption"?
-Shane Claiborne
We serve a God who is all about interrupting us. What a perspective!! I can choose to be thankful for all the interruptions that come my way.(and boy, there are many!! LOL) If God had of not interrupted me from the path I was on eleven years ago I would be somewhere wasting my life.
Today, give God thanks for your interruptions and continue to fight the tendency to not see HIS PROVIDENCE throughout your day.