By: Rusty Stowe
When you are on the phone, someone knocks at the front door. When you are trying to take a nap, the telephone rings. When you are at the busiest part of the day, someone needs to talk to you right away. When you are headed to church on Sunday morning, someone can't find his socks.
Life is just full of INTERRUPTIONS. All of us can testify to our lives being "interrupted" this past year. Our "important" things became "less" important. Vacations were cancelled or at least rescheduled. Our "normal" routines of coming to Sunday School and preachin' have been interrupted. This is just part of what we have had to deal with because of a virus. We know that interruptions will happen so how we handle these interruptions is very important to our everyday living.
In Matthew chapter 9 we find Jesus having dinner with a tax collector named Matthew when the pomp and righteous Pharisees INTERRUPTED this gathering wanting to know why Jesus was having dinner with these people. Just as Jesus was trying to explain what He was doing, some followers of John the Baptist interrupted and wanted to know why they fasted, but Jesus did not. And then while Jesus was trying to explain why He wasn't fasting Jarius, one of the most important men in town, rushed in and demanded that Jesus come to his house and rescue his daughter who was dying.
Just like our lives today, the life of Jesus was full of "interruptions." And we can learn a lot from seeing how Jesus handled His interruptions. In all three accounts Jesus' response was the same, "take courage". Song writer Kenneth Morris wrote: "Does Jesus care when I’m oppressed? Does Jesus care when I'm destressed? O, yes, He cares. My Jesus cares! I know He sees and cares." The same is true for us! Jesus sees all the interruptions we deal with. He cares that sometimes we are stressed to the point of no return. But remember, He CARES!
As we continue to move into a very busy time for all of us, remember when life fills our schedules with "interruptions", Jesus still cares. Handle one interruption at a time and allow Jesus to walk with you each time. VBS, student camps, family vacations, etc. will all call for rescheduling your time, just do not let these things take you away from the fellowship of our church family. We miss you when you are not here!
- Rusty