I’m sure if I say, “My life is busy,” you’d probably respond with “Join the club!” or some other equally quippy response that basically means, “Me too!” If you’re reading this and you don’t at least have seasons or days when you feel like there are more things to do than hours in the day, I’d love for you to teach me your ways. Clearly, you’ve “arrived.”
I have two daughters who both do competitive gymnastics and when competition season rolls around, it gets difficult to navigate. Gymnastics meets typically take place over an entire weekend and you don’t usually know which time-slot your child is competing in until a week or so before. From time to time, one of the girls will get the Sunday morning slot which is not ideal as Sunday mornings are peak time in the church world and I can only miss a certain number of Sundays per year. What I am saying is, it gets difficult for me to attend the Sunday morning meets.
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A few months ago, my youngest drew the Sunday morning time slot for a local meet and unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be able to attend. She was really sad about it but as much as she could, she understood. The morning came and our family went our separate ways. My wife and daughters left for the meet, and I headed to church. Throughout the morning I was getting text updates from the meet and a constant nudging that I was in the wrong place. After a quick conversation with my boss, I left during the service and rushed out to the meet.
When I got there, I paid $10 for the cost of admission and hurried inside. My daughter had no idea I was there but eventually, the best thing happened: she saw me. When she saw me, her whole face changed. She absolutely lit up! I could see her outlook on the entire day completely transform. She ended up having a great meet. What she didn’t know in the moment, was that I was only there for about 30 minutes. I got to see her compete in two events and then I had to get back for the next service.
The truth is it didn’t matter how long I was there. She just needed me to show up in some way. Those 30 minutes cost me $10, a quarter of a tank of gas, and half an hour of windshield time. The return on all of that was worth way more than the investment.
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One of the things that has always stood out to me about Jesus’ ministry is that he was always interruptible. There was nothing on his task list important enough to prevent him from stopping and seeing the individual in front of him. He was never so busy that he couldn’t slow down and tend to the needs of those around him. One of the best examples of this is Mark chapter 5. In this chapter of scripture, Jesus slows down and addresses the needs of a demon-possessed man, a father whose daughter is dying, and a woman with a blood disease. In all of these interactions, Jesus was on his way to do something else, something important, and yet, he slowed down and saw the needs of the ones in front of him.
Before we get too deep into this, I’m not Jesus nor am I pretending to be. None of us are. But if the goal of this life is to be like him, and it is, being interruptable is a great place to start. While we may not be able to heal the sick or raise the dead, we can slow down and see the people around us. We can pause and serve those who are hurting or broken. And we can take the time to point those who are suffering toward the one who can give them life. Who is in your life that needs you to slow down? For me on that particular day, it was my daughter. I was so focused on the tasks on my list for that morning that I almost missed an opportunity to love someone right in front of me. I am so thankful that I didn’t miss that moment. I am thankful that I work somewhere that prioritizes people and the health of my family over the day-to-day or week-to-week tasks. I am thankful that I had the margin that day to slow down and be there for my daughter, even if it was only thirty minutes. That thirty minutes changed her day but sometimes that thirty minutes can change someone’s entire life.
I want to encourage you to be interruptible this week. Take time to see the people in front of you and serve them when you can. When we do this, we show them a little bit of what Jesus is like and help them to see that there is a God who loves them and cares for them. Who can you be interruptible for this week?
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