So it’s been a long time since I last posted…my apologies to those of you waiting with bated breath for the latest and greatest insights from the random wanderings of my mind! For those of you who weren’t waiting – well shame on you!
It has been a very crazy four weeks. The first two were spent on vacation and the last two were spent doing all the work and catching up from going on vacation. I am pretty sure you who know exactly what I mean.
So anyway… It was the Scottish Poet Robert Burns penned this famous line in 1785, “The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy.” It basically means no matter how well you plan something, always expect the unexpected, in other words, just because you think you’ve done all you can for something to go right….something can still get messed up (always have a plan B).
This is exactly what happened as I was driving through central California on vacation. I had the route all planned out. I knew exactly how long it was going to take, when we would arrive, and what we would do…but…somewhere on highway 99 one of the tires on the van decided to quit functioning as a tire and function more like a door stop.
So there I am unloading all the luggage, lowering the spare, and reading the directions on how to use the jack (there is photographic proof and please note this is not the time to do this – and be rest assured that my eight year old is going to learn how to change a tire before she is a nine-year old). While my wife is in the van talking on her phone with her mother and ready to dial 911 on my phone as a white panel van quickly drives up and all doors fly open.
It turns out that these good Samaritans were there to help – but my wife later told me that she was ready to drive off if they started to attack me or something. I was like, “gee thanks!’ She responded, “Well, don’t you want me and the girls to be safe?” At that point I remembered I had just updated her on our life insurance coverage moments before the tire gave out…
3 hours later we had a new tire, the spare was pumped up to the proper air pressure, we had a brand new umbrella (hey I told you we were at Costco and I didn’t care if I was in Central California that was one cool umbrella – in fact my wife now admits it is pretty cool), and were back at the point where I changed the tire…
Interruptions – you gotta love them. OK not really, but you do have to come to expect them and deal with them.
It made me think about Jesus and His ministry. How many times do you think He was interrupted in His ministry? I’m definitely going to ask Him someday…but for now I can take a guess it was a ton. The cool thing is Jesus used those interruptions as teaching moments. He used them as times to point to the Father…EVERY TIME! Go ahead and show me a story in the Bible and I’m pretty sure I can show you an interruption.
What about our lives? What if we were to look at every interruption in our life as a teaching moment? As a moment to for ministry? WOW! Can you imagine the impact? It could be pretty amazing.
The other thing about that road in Central California…it’s straight and boring…gives you plenty of time to think about interruptions….and what to do with them!
So until next time – Here’s to hoping for interruptions!
Pastor Barry
Pastor Barry's Blog 