There are people who love lists. And there is the rest of humanity.
I love lists on crisp lined paper or bright post its. I love the catharsis I experience as I cross off an item (is “eating breakfast” an acceptable task to add?). Lists help me think and keep me organized. They help my focus and streamline productivity.
But relationships are not deepened by checklists. It is instead those unplanned things that affect how we feel about each other, those moments where our own needs are met – and where we see the very real needs of those around us. And in general, these vital moments come in the form of interruptions: the phone ringing, our spouse coming home early, a child asking questions, a neighbor knocking on the door.
It is in my own open availability that I best love those around me if I am only willing to be interrupted.
Of course, it’s important to learn to finish a task we have begun. Completing such a task is indicative of integrity, responsibility and commitment.
But sometimes the items on my to do list were not on the Lord’s. Sometimes the tasks I want to do are not the tasks the Lord is trying to place in my hands. I like to think that my own ideas and plans are important and valuable, forgetting that the Lord’s plans take precedence.
I think of the many times Jesus (the son of God himself) was interrupted. The curious and the cunning questioned him. Blind men and demon possessed cried aloud to him. The disciples (and Martha) lodged complaints. Parents and masters begged him to heal their loved ones. All this is dispersed amongst traveling, handing out food, teaching, and praying.
And not once do we see Jesus snapping “can’t you see I’m working on something?!?”
He did not allow his enemies to bully him or alter his purposes. But his heart was open to those souls in need – those “seeming” interruptions – that were perhaps the “real” work all along.
So whatever is on our “to do” list today, perhaps we might add “God’s opportunities.”
We don’t want to miss the real and often invisible work He places before us today.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. ~ Ephesians 2:10
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
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