I was drafting a blog post that began with a personal observation about interruptions. As the draft evolved the insight didn’t fit the overall message. I almost cut it completely but then decided it deserved it’s own space. So here it is. Let me know what you think.
One of the great challenges of our age is taking the time to reflect. This is all the more true in our walk of faith. We are surrounded by distractions and it is difficult to keep God in the forefront of our thoughts.
Years ago I read a classic devotional book that advised the reader to think of every interruption as an opportunity from God. Don’t be irritated by the interruption, the author said, but instead see it as a chance for God’s serendipity to be at work.
It seemed like great advice at the time. I still attempt to practice it. But in this age of connectedness, I think that advice is more appropriate for a monk in a monastery than it is for a person in a globalized world.
Instead of finding ways to utilize interruptions, we need to swing the pendulum toward minimizing interruptions. There are countless shiny things in our lives that create too many interruptions. There are far too many distractions. Instead of imposing a spiritual overlay on the issue by telling ourselves that each interruption or distraction is a moment to see God at work, we need to make the harder spiritual choice and stop the interruptions to begin with.
The challenge of our age is not to merely find God in the midst of interruptions; it’s to find quiet times that allow God to interrupt our distractions.