I am one of those hyper-focused guys where while it may take me a while to get started on something, once I get going, don’t interrupt me on it until I am at a good place to stop. I used to hate unexpected interruptions and it would make me shut down. I don’t remember it, but rumor has it that the worst tantrum I threw as a child was when my babysitter sent me to bed half an hour late. Why? It threw me off my schedule and I was not prepared for it. I am much better at dealing with this now, but I was not exactly the best person to be around when I was interrupted and inconvenienced. How do we handle interruptions and inconveniences?
I worked in retail for six years after high school and into my first couple years of college at a local grocery store. They had made me a jack-of-all-trades at this store. The only departments I did not work were meat market, bakery, and produce. I worked warehouse, I worked the shelves, I worked cashier, I sacked/carried out groceries, dairy, frozen, and even janitorial stuff from time to time. I remember one summer, I sought to do a thorough cleaning of the shelves I was primarily responsible for and I long lost count of how many times the front called me up to sack groceries or cashier for one or two customers when there were plenty of other people in the story who truly weren’t doing much. It was frustrating, and the more I reflect upon it, I did not exactly handle it the way I should have.
What dislodged this from my mind was Eric Ludy’s sermon “Fixing Broken Pots.” In this sermon, Ludy describes the mission work of Otto Conning in Ira Jaya and Papua New Guinea. Otto was sent to do language studies and to translate the Gospel of John, and yet every time he turned around the people came to him to fix their broken pots, busted shovels, bent machetes, and a rusty harmonica. Ludy shows how Otto had to get to the point where dealing with all these interruptions was more important than the primary job he was sent to do, and in the end he ended up being ahead of nearly every other missionary sent by the board by ten years. It was hard, but he learned to appreciate the inconveniences and that ultimately God was the one responsible for how and when he got things done.
When I first heard that sermon, I knew I was guilty of not handling things the right way. When things go as expected, life is easy. But something I have known for some time but never really appreciated so much is that God likes to make us uncomfortable because that is the only way to get us to grow. I can say this from experience and I am sure many of you can say it too. If you want God to teach you patience, I can guarantee you will get many opportunities to practice patience. I can also say from experience that if you want to have a time completely separated from everything else so you can focus on a project, you can expect a number of interruptions and inconveniences to come your way. My project I tried to do at this grocery store was a fine example.
What kind of inconveniences do we face? What are they for? How should we respond to them? Interruptions and inconveniences come from two sources: God or Satan, and between them there are three primary motivations in throwing them at us.
The first motivation for God to throw us inconveniences is when he wants to teach us something. Some of these are small things. A flat tire that actually kept you out of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Getting called to the front of the store when you are focused on a project in the back end. Dealing with the “customer from hell.” Having a manager constantly micromanage your work. In growing up serving on mission teams, the sewer line of our Colorado home would back up every Friday night, right before we were to leave before sunrise the next morning for Juarez, Mexico. Every time. Paul had his thorn in the flesh. He repeatedly asked for it to be removed, but God was teaching Paul to trust in God alone and not his own skills, abilities, and intellect. These inconveniences are to help us build our character and to make us stronger so we can handle even bigger issues.
The second motivation for inconveniences are where God wants you to set up your plans and then he will redirect your steps when you get there. A case of major inconveniences that years earlier would have really messed me up took place in 2011. I was the leader of one of the Christian organizations at my college and I had spearheaded an outreach with a professional pool player, Steve Lillis. The very week he was to arrive, we got hit with a massive deep freeze that impacted the entire country. He got on the first plane out of New Jersey only to arrive in El Paso, to high temperatures of 15 degrees. Never in recorded history had El Paso stayed more than 48 hours below freezing. This storm killed the power generators, which killed the water pumps, and El Paso was forced to manage rolling blackouts and boil water because the major pipes had busted because they were frozen. For our outreach, we lost our venues and our intended audience. Yet God opened up other venues and other audiences, and Steve Lillis told me that week was his best in 15 years of international presentations. He included this trip in his autobiography. Man makes his plans but God directs his steps. He created inconveniences to get us to reach those he wanted to reach.
But thirdly, Satan also gives us inconveniences which God allows but did not necessarily authorize. While God will use inconveniences to help us grow, the enemy uses them to distract us and pull us off our position. We are soldiers in God’s army, positioned at certain stations. Satan will try to throw interruptions and inconveniences at us to try to get us to respond to them and leave our post, because once we leave our post, he invades our territory to try to take it over. These are such inconveniences were are to silence. Paul did so in Acts 16:16-18. A girl kept following them and proclaiming their message in a not so appropriate way. Paul got annoyed and cast the demon out of the girl. This of course caused her owners to get mad and they started a riot.
Learn the difference. Learn what you can learn from God, but don’t let the distractions keep you from your post and your duty. If God needs you to change your duty, he will tell you so. But don’t let the enemy give you that counsel.
I have greatly improved in my handling of interruptions and inconveniences, however I am not perfected. As a substitute teacher, a few weeks ago I had a day where my assignment got changed 4 times before the 1st period ended and I was able to take it with class. There have been other times a few years ago when such a circumstance would have shut me down. Let us handle our inconveniences with grace and tact. Recognize where they may come from, and even if they are from the devil, let us seek what God wants us to learn from it.
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