Beautiful Disruptions ~ Take 2 ~ Valerie Ronald

 

This post is a repeat of my first guest post published by InScribe Writers Online, back on October 31, 2019. It so perfectly fits this month's writing prompt that I decided to post it again. 

 

One day on a beach walk with a good friend, I told her about an e-mail I received that morning from a man I did not know. It seems I knew his brother and sister-in-law a long time ago. I watched the waves beat their way to shore, scuffed the sand with my shoe.  

“He asked if it would be alright if we wrote to each other.” When I glanced at my friend, she was smiling. She said, “I have such a strong sense that from this day out, things for you will change for the better. God is up to something.”  

My heart gave a hopeful little leap, then settled back to the cautious beat of one familiar with pain, disappointment and struggle. For several years all I had known was the war zone of a messy divorce and a life-threatening illness. Hope was hard to come by.

But now when I look back I recognize that moment on the beach as one of God’s beautiful disruptions. Sometime later I married the man who e-mailed me and moved on to a whole new life full of love, joy and fulfillment.  

Webster’s dictionary defines disruption as causing something to be unable to continue in the normal way: interrupting the usual progress or activity of something. A disruption is at first stressful because it throws things into disorder, putting us off the course we were used to. But God has a way of disrupting lives that opens up possibilities never imagined, even if at the time the disruption is unwelcome.  

The scriptures are full of beautifully disrupted stories where God suddenly steps in to redirect the current path of someone He wants to use to fulfill His purposes. In Exodus 3, Moses has spent many years tending his father-in-law’s flock on the far side of the desert. God captures Moses’ attention when He speaks from a burning bush. He sends Moses on a mission back to Egypt to free the Israelites from slavery. As a country herdsman spending days on end with only sheep for company, Moses’ life is beautifully disrupted when he becomes God’s chosen instrument to lead His people to freedom.  

As a lowly shepherd boy on the hills around Bethlehem, David was unlikely to be chosen for any significant role. But God changed David’s life by sending His prophet, Samuel, to anoint him as the future king of Israel. God’s beautiful disruption caused David to become a mighty king, a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22 NIV) and a forefather of Jesus, the Messiah.  

In the most glorious disruption of all, a Jewish peasant girl is visited by an angel announcing she is to give birth to the Son of God. “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34) Through the power of the Holy Spirit, she becomes the mother of Jesus, God in human flesh, whose life, death and resurrection provides salvation for all who believe in Him.  

Sometimes God reveals Himself to me in subtle ways. To be honest, I would prefer He direct me slowly and gently. But when I think of the mountaintops of my spiritual walk, it is the beautiful disruptions that stand out. Those times when God breaks suddenly into my mundane life speak of a love so great He would do the extraordinary to capture my attention. 

Such beautiful disruptions cause me to exclaim, only God.

Only God could orchestrate so many details to fulfill His purposes.

Only God interrupts by making me breathless with His beauty and majesty.

Only God beautifully disrupted time by stepping down from eternity to live among us. 

Valerie Ronald lives in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. She is a graduate of Vancouver's Langara College journalism program, and has worked as a newspaper reporter, freelance writer, public speaker and bookstore employee. She writes devotionals for her home church bulletins and her online blog. Her current book project chronicles how God's faithfulness saw her through the dark valleys of divorce and cancer. Along with her husband, Valerie enjoys spending time with their blended family and six grandchildren. She is a nature photographer, water colorist, cat lover and Scrabble addict.

More of her devotionals can be read on her blog https://scriptordeus.wordpress.com

Interruptions - the Real Substance by Joy Bailey

I'm bad with interruptions, but I'm trying to do better. I'm trying to be ... less annoyed. 

I'm convinced it gets easier once one has grandchildren. 

My grandchildren don't live near me so when they video-call, I drop everything to see their sweet faces, to read them a book, or to chat about the new bandaid on their eyebrow. 

There is little else I will accept as an interruption, but I'm working on that.

****

A few people have quoted C.S. Lewis this month on the blog. However, I keep thinking about an interview I saw with Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham. In the interview Gresham describes what it was like to live with C.S. Lewis. About nine and a half minutes in, interviewer Derick Bingham asks, "Was he hard to live with while he was writing?"

Douglas Gresham doesn't hesitate even slightly when he answers, "Not at all. He was the opposite. Jack was someone who would accept interruption, every ten minutes, if necessary, while he was working very hard at a book or something, without the slightest degree of irritation. He was able to believe, and to behave as if he believed, which he did, that our own personal work is nowhere near as important as the interruptions to it. The interruptions are the real substance of God's job for us."  

I find this remarkable. It's one thing to write a memorable comment that people quote decades later in a writing blog, and something else entirely to have lived it. Extraordinary.

*****

This week I haven't been interrupted by any grandchild video calls at all, because I've been hanging out with them in person! In fact, the only interruption to our fun was the deadline for this blog post, which I almost completely forgot about until the last minute. Real life can be annoying sometimes. 😄  

~ Find the full interview with Douglas Gresham here. ~

Joy is writing from a lovely home in Saskatchewan, where she's been painting princesses, filling small dump trucks with sticks & leaves, and building forts out of throw pillows. Find more of her joy-infused view of the world at Scraps of Joy.  

When You Encounter Interruptions by Sandi Somers

Interruptions stop us...

We’re all familiar with interruptions.

They may be small interruptions: a phone call or text message or visitor at our door while we're trying to write. A friend who wants our attention when we’re busy. Someone who interjects their own opinions while we’re speaking. These interruptions can detract us from the focus/task at hand.

Interruptions may be of intermediate seriousness. This summer I was mentally drained from taking writing courses with their demands of weekly assignments, longer essays, and lots of reading. So from May to August I couldn’t write. The ideas didn’t come. Sometimes I felt I had lost four months of writing time.

However, major, life-changing interruptions out of our control can rock our world —and shatter our daily life, our hopes, and dreams.

Last year Tracy Krauss spent time in the hospital with continuing health issues, and over the year she was forced to scale back her responsibilities. “Limitations are my new realities,” she wrote.

Nina Faye Morey’s life was interrupted last year when her husband passed away. “Unfortunately, it washed away all those familiar roads in my life, leaving me to tread a lonely and solitary path through the wilderness,” she wrote.

Katie Gerke, one of our occasional bloggers, has written how MS has robbed her of most of her mobility and dreams for the future. And now in the last two months, she has been in and out of the hospital, including in ICU, dealing with various health issues (but not Covid so far). Over her years with MS, she has dealt with debilitating pain and weariness, isolation, and sometimes overwhelming sadness.

When we are interrupted, we may at first be disoriented. Bewildered. Angry. What we thought were our next plans have been halted; something or someone we love is lost with nothing to replace it, nowhere to go.

“The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions,” wrote Martin Luther King. “The door that slams shut, the plan that got sidetracked, the marriage that failed. Or that lovely poem that didn’t get written because someone knocked on the door.”

Yet often these are God's interruptions that come from His love. They come for a purpose and plan. “My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted until I discovered the interruptions were my work,” Henri Nouwen wrote near the end of his life.

During this time God may bring us to a place of complete dependency on Himself, a place where he shows us his tenderness. He speaks comfort, promise of his presence and rest. "I will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope", He says (Hosea 2:15)

I learned this summer that “to everything there is a season” (Eccl 3:1). What appeared to be an interruption to my writing was an intervention. God knew I needed time to rest, to turn my attention to other things…beside writing…working in my yard and garden, taking long walks (the outdoors always rejuvenates me), catching up on visiting family and friends when Covid restrictions eased, and relaxing with God in the early morning. Finally as August progressed, I felt writing sparks began to flicker.

Tracy discovered a door of hope as she wrote: “As God continues to give me clarity about what I am to be doing right now in this stage of my life, I cannot continue to look back and long for how it used to be.” But she adds that God still has a plan and purpose for her, “I have more books to write, grandchildren to snuggle, people to encourage, and interceding to do, but perhaps not at the same pace.” 

Nina absorbed meaningful quotes on grief and thoughts from scriptures, which she shared with us. To restore some semblance of normalcy, she began to write again, also knowing that “creative activities are positive ways to cope with negative feelings and emotions.” She also looks forward to being reunited with her husband and meeting Jesus one day. 

Katie finds God’s hidden treasures as she lives with MS. She wrote that especially in her darkest days, “God shows Himself in light, so brilliant and breathtaking that I will take it and tuck it in my heart so I can use it ‘as a lamp to my feet and a light to my path’” Psalm 119:105.

“Interruptions (are) God's appointments." Debbie Macomber

And now it’s your opportunity.  

 How can you grapple with CS Lewis’ advice: “The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life – the life God is sending one day by day”?

How has God shown Himself to you in these interruptions?

Has your interruption turned into an opportunity—if so, how?

Life Is In The Interruptions by Bob Jones

“Maybe life IS the interruptions,” wrote Janice Dick.

As a pastor I can say a solid “amen” to that.

I used to work hard at time management and schedules to avoid interruptions. Now I work hard at life management to include interruptions.

Much of effective pastoral care is usually found in the interruptions.

The man widowed after 45 years of marriage whose call interrupts message prep about Biblical families because he needs help making sense of his newly single life.

The distraught mother whose call interrupts Board agenda prep because her adult son was just found dead in his apt.

The novice small group leader whose text interrupts budget prep needing to know why the God he is teaching about is so heartless in the Old Testament.

The seeker who shows up at the office interrupting an evangelism training seminar because they passed by the church and saw the sign that says, “Come as you are.” And so they’ve come. Now. To talk. About God.

In reading the Gospels two things stand out to me about how Jesus dealt with work and interruptions. Jesus was busy. Why else would John record in his gospel that if everything Jesus did was written down, the world would not have enough room to contain all the books about his work. (John 21:25) That’s busy.

But Jesus was never hurried.

Interruptions did not stop his work – they became his work. He was never too hurried to pause.

A woman with an “issue of blood” interrupted him on his way to heal a little girl. He paused. “Who touched me?” The woman was healed and so was the girl.

A blind man in Jericho interrupted Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem by calling out for mercy. His friends tried to quiet him. Jesus paused and healed him.

The longer I have worked at writing, the more I see that the writing life and life in general is not about balance but about priority. Relationships trump rules. People trump schedules. Family trumps just about everything.

Setting your pen down or turning aside from a keyboard to pay attention to an interruption could be the best thing you can do.

As I was writing this post about interruptions I was interrupted by a call from my eldest son and grandson. They’re five hours away in Saskatoon but as close as a Facetime call. An ironic interruption? Not really. Just life. At its best. Hello?

Bob is a recovering perfectionist, who collects Coca-Cola memorabilia and drinks Iced Tea. His office walls are adorned with his sons’ framed football jerseys, and his library shelves, with soul food. He writes to inspire people to be real, grow an authentic faith in Jesus, enjoy healthy relationships and discover their life purpose.

Follow his writing at Pointes Of View.