When you work with children, interruptions are inevitable. If you teach a Sunday school class, there will always be the kid who acts up, or one that asks strange questions. When you prepare for that class, there will be people (often your family) who will interrupt you.
How do you handle those interruptions? It’s tempting, for me anyway, to brush aside the interrupter, even if he’s the little person I’m supposedly ministering to. Or to think that if I’m interrupted, I won’t get everything on my list done, and that will make me have to hurry. It won’t be my fault, but the fault of those who interrupt me. Right?
Do you see the irony of chastising your kids for bugging you when you’re trying to put together a Sunday school lesson on Matthew 19:13-15 (you know, where Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me”)?
If you read the Gospels with a discerning eye, you’ll notice that Jesus was often interrupted—people questioned him, sometimes rather antagonistically, or wanted healings. I think we can learn a lot from what he did—and did not do—when interrupted.
He did not correct, walk away, lecture, or get mad. What he did instead was listen and love. Sometimes love came in the form of tough questions or challenges, but his motive was always to invite the interrupter into the Kingdom of God. Jesus saw interruptions as opportunities to minister to people. They didn’t pull him off task—the interruptions were his task. How did he manage to keep that perspective?
I think the pace of his life was a key factor. Given the fact that Jesus walked our planet for about 33 years—and only three of those in his “official” ministry—you’d think he’d have been tempted to be hurried. He had a difficult mission and not a lot of time to accomplish it. Jesus, faced with what he knew would be a short-term assignment, particularly from his eternal perspective, certainly worked hard. The Gospel writers, especially Matthew and Mark, repeatedly use words like “immediately,” or give a sense that Jesus moved through his full days in a purposeful way.
Jesus’ life was busy but simple. He did a lot, but he didn’t seem to hurry. You can search the Gospels and never find a verse that says, “And lo, the Lord Jesus was hurried.” In fact, when other people tried to get him to hurry, he refused. He gently reproved Martha for her hustle and bustle, for being worried and distracted. He corrected his disciples when they tried to convince some women and children that Jesus was too busy to greet them. Jesus was fully present with people, whether they were religious leaders or lepers. As a result, he responded gently to the inevitable interruptions of life.
Many scholars believe that most of Jesus’ disciples were quite young—except for Peter, they were most likely in their teens. So Jesus, in a way, was doing youth ministry. If you’ve ever worked with teens, you know they interrupt and ask questions, come up with crazy ideas, and do unpredictable things.
But sometimes, God uses the unpredictable to speak to us. If we slow down and listen, it will change our perspective on interruptions. It will also help us to be more loving, more patient. It’s hard to love in a hurry.
Do you see interruptions as an opportunity for ministry? Are you mindful and unhurried enough to discern what those you lead really need? Are you humble enough to listen to what is really going on before you tell them how to fix themselves? I sometimes have to admit that my frustration with interruptions is mostly about my desire to be in control.
Learning to slow down, learning to see interruptions as divine appointments—they won’t just make you a better leader. They’ll feed your soul, and make you more like Jesus. It’s something that you, and those you lead, need.
Copyrighted material. Part of this essay was adapted from Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life by Keri Wyatt Kent.(Revell, 2005.)
Copyright © 2006 Promiseland.
