Do you like interruptions? I don't.
I make plans. I have a schedule. And long-term goals. Dreams. And I don't want anything or anyone to disrupt me.
But, of course, interruptions do come into everyone's lives and sometimes they are epic—especially if the interruption comes from God!
In retrospect, we can recognize that God's interruptions were major turning points and opportunities for learning and maturing.
Have you thought about writing in your memoir
about your interruptions?
Recently I wrote that life's interruptions can resemble earthquakes.
Have you
ever felt an earthquake?
I
experienced Seattle’s 1965 earthquake. People felt it across Washington,
British Columbia, Idaho, and Oregon. The 6.5 quake (some officials called it a
6.7) lasted 45 seconds, and that’s a long time for an earthquake of that
magnitude.
And the
earth’s eerie roar lasted even longer than that.
Sometimes
life can feel like an earthquake. Without warning, a jolt rocks your world.
What has seemed solid and predictable and dependable suddenly lurches and
crumbles. And even when the shaking stops, the jarring trauma rolls on.
And the eerie roar lasts longer than that.
Years after the Seattle earthquake, my husband burst through our front door and announced he wanted us to move to South America so he could teach missionaries’ kids.
The ground
beneath my feet felt like another major earthquake had struck and I literally
fell to the floor. (You can read about it in my memoir, Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’s Memoir.)
In the
following months, the eerie roar rumbled on.
My dreams
and plans had taken a hit.
My sense
of where my life was headed had fallen apart.
What I
didn’t know then was that interruption—the earthquake that my husband (and
eventually, it turned out, that God, too) sprung on me was meant for good.
I would
later learn that some of my dreams and plans weren’t the best for me and my
family. They needed to crumble down in ruins.
But I
didn’t comprehend that then. Instead, the stuff of earthquakes—like crumbled
bricks and debris—covered me. It was dark down there. I felt bruised and
broken. Alone.
I was
only 27 years young. The old me now wishes I could have told the 27-year-old me
that I could live a good life even after earthquakes and loss and the shock of
it all.
In fact, those
three years in South America
were the
best of our lives!
I praise
and thank God
that He
interrupted my plans!
“Sometimes
when you’re in a dark place
you think
you’ve been buried,
but
you’ve actually been planted.”
That was
true for me. What started as a devastating earthquake ended up being a
mountaintop experience.
God’s
interruption turned into
one of my
life’s richest blessings.
How about
you?
Think of
the ways God has interrupted your plans. What detours did He place in your
path? What curveballs did He throw at you?
And what stories can you include in your memoir about God's interruptions?
- Did you welcome God's interruption, or resist it?
- If you resisted it, what eventually convinced you to do what He was inviting you to do?
- What obstacles and fears and worldliness did you have to overcome in order to carry out His task for you?
- How did God's interruption show you your plans weren't His best for you, and that He was steering you in a different and better direction?
- In what specific ways did God's interruption prove to be a divine appointment, a major turning point in your life?
- How have God's interruptions led you to love Him increasingly with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (the most important—the foremost, the greatest—commandment, Mark 12:28-30, Matthew 22:36-37)?
Put your stories into writing! Remember:
Be careful never to forget
what you've seen the Lord do for you.
Do not let these things escape from your mind
as long as you live!
And be sure to pass them on
to your children and grandchildren.
(Deuteronomy 4:9, NLT)
We, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank You forever and ever, praising Your greatness from generation to generation (Psalm 79:13b, NLT).
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