you’re interrupting my real work!!!

i’ve been focused so much on writing my theses that whatever events or work outside of this focus felt like an interruption. getting this thesis done is a necessary step in my being able to teach old testament sooner or later. so i have to do it – and as the deadline is 20 april (and friends are coming on 12 april), i have to get my act together to get it done now already. and as i was on a roll by the end of last week (which is out of the ordinary), i resented anything that infringed on the momentum i had. however, i live in community, which by its nature, interrupts. and last weekend, it was my turn to share the responsibilities for all of the house’s activities.

i’d always been a bit scornful of pastors who resented interruptions while writing a sermon or organizing or planning – or whatever else they were doing that was "key" to their ministry. couldn’t they see that the interruptions were also ministry? that the persons at the door and the questions being asked were just as much a part of their serving God as the tasks that these people interrupted?

but i think i understand a bit better why the interruptions are so hard. my thesis (like others’ sermons) are pretty obviously a way in which i can serve God better. and i haven’t always as much time or energy to put on it as i’d like. and it very much needs to get done. the interruptions aren’t an obvious way in which to serve God – they are sometimes simply things that many others could (and perhaps should) do – but for whatever reason aren’t there to do it. and the sense that the interruptions are ministry, too, is lost in the overwhelming reality that the tasks i do need to get done are being pushed to the side for others’ needs and/or wants. resentment over the interruptions is not really all that surprising, even if i know theoretically that these interruptions are opportunities to serve God in the ordinary aspects of every day.

i finally acknowledged my resentment and the feeling that all this stuff (mostly connected to life in the community) was interrupting my real work. and that helped me to see how i had made my time and energy more important than others’ – and that perhaps i’d developed a skewed picture of my real work – along with a limited understanding of God’s grace in helping me doing this work in the time needed – and finding a way to provide that time and energy.

and so after acknowledging my skewed vision, i could see the interruptions in different ways:
in the past week, i have been able to offer a listening ear. and have been offered more than one. i have laughed with and encouraged others. i have extended grace – and been extended it back. i celebrated a birthday. i got to help share some of the delightful quirks of a volunteer here with others here via an interview in our internal newsletter. i got to help someone with her chapel leading ‘premiere.’ i had the opportunity to have a couple of conversations for which i’d been looking for the right moment for awhile. and i get to walk alongside people as they ask difficult questions and grow in knowledge and wisdom and love for God.

and i still managed to do quite a bit on my thesis. i expect God to be smirking slightly a bit at how the lesson i've finally learned - it is me who often interrupts the real work that God can do through me.